Fri 13 Oct 2017
WITNESS TO MURDER. MGM, 1954. Barbara Stanwyck, George Sanders, Gary Merrill, Jesse White, Harry Shannon, Juanita Moore, with Claude Akins, Sam Edwards, Burt Mustin. Director of photography: John Alton. Director: Roy Rowland.
Witness to Murder came out the same year as Rear Window, but this one came first. Both have the same basic premise. The witness in Witness is a single woman living alone in an apartment (Barbara Stanwyck) who is woken up by the wind during the night, goes to close the window and sees is a man (George Sanders) strangling a woman to death in a room across the street.
She calls the police, but after the laxest investigation you can imagine (Strike One), they find no signs of the murder and think she dreamt or imagined the entire incident.
She persists, however, arousing the deep-seated enmity of Sanders, who cleverly connives to convince the police that she is in serious need of psychiatric treatment.
This in spite of the growing attraction between Ms Stanwyck and the police officer in charge of the case (Gary Merrill). An attraction that is never convincing, I’m sorry to say, which is Strike Two against this film. Totally convincing, however, is George Sanders’ usual strong performance as a totally amoral cad of a killer.
Also on the plus side is the black and white camera work under the direction of cinematographer John Alton. A striking dark windswept street sets the tone from the very beginning, and stark shadows appear in almost every scene thereafter.
In terms of noir film-making, the slickness of what MGM produced often worked against them, and the relatively few they made are considered far less memorable than those of smaller companies. In this one, though, the photography at least is top notch, indeed, Grade A from beginning to end.
There is no chemistry between Stanwyck and Merrill, however, and with a story line that’s only moderately compelling, Witness to Murder simply is not in the same league as Rear Window. Not even close.
October 14th, 2017 at 8:42 am
Good point about the MGM style being antithetical to the noir ethos. Some of them (like TENSION) work in spite of this, but most do not.
October 14th, 2017 at 11:53 am
The MGM noirs were never considered top product by the studio. As for Rear Window, it is not a noir.
October 14th, 2017 at 3:02 pm
I agree. In comparing the two films in terms of their story lines, I did not mean to suggest RW was a noir film, though I believe some books and/or critics do. The story RW is based on, one by Cornell Woolrich, certainly is a noir, but Hitchcock pretty much took it in another direction and made it his own.
October 14th, 2017 at 4:41 pm
Yes, of course, and doing Rear Window from the point of view of nearly any other resident could easily make it noir. Do it from Raymond Burr’s character, Larsen’s point of view, and you are home free. But, it would be disgusting.
October 14th, 2017 at 4:43 pm
Not Larsen, but Lars Thorwald, and you can’t play Lars as a hero.
October 14th, 2017 at 5:37 pm
I wonder if anyone would remake RW from the POV of Miss Torso?
October 14th, 2017 at 9:33 pm
I see that, Dan.
October 15th, 2017 at 12:26 am
This one is minor, but Sanders almost saves it with that performance, even if it is his usual role. Merrill couldn’t be more wooden if he was a puppet.
October 15th, 2017 at 10:13 am
Very true, David!