Zeugin des Mordes

Perhaps Barbara Stanwyck was looking to score another Oscar with Witness To Murder. Her fourth and final nomination was with Sorry Wrong Number. In that film she overhears a murder plot.

In this one she sees neighbor George Sanders commit a strangulation on some woman. But the police show up and no body and no signs of struggle. Still Stanwyck persists and detectives Gary Merrill and Jesse White do their best..

We learn too early that Sanders did the deed which robs us of suspense. Still Sanders is at his caddiest and that's always a treat.

The best scenes are Stanwyck in a mental ward and she's in with a lot of those you would have seen in the Snake Pit. Wonderful scene allowing all the players including Stanwyck to overact and stay in character.

Timing is everything and Witness To Murder was released first so it was no copycat. But Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window with the same premise and all those Hitch touches came out far superior and this film was forgotten.

Stanwyck and the cast do a good job though and Witness To Murder should not be forgotten.

This is a great example of "film noir," as every scene has some sort of shadow pattern on the wall, the floor, the faces. All shots are done with key light on the faces. The patterns suggest "jail," "locked up," "flight" (as in a train track), "trapped," (as in a cobweb), and others. There isn't one scene that doesn't have a shadow in it! Even the day time sequences. And the actors that had great careers: Stanwyck, Gary Merrill, Claude Akins, even Jesse (the original maytag repairman) White, and, of course, George Sanders, who plays a "deNazified" ex-Nazi. Whew! Great stuff.

Barbara Stanwyck witnesses a murder and the culprit, played by the usually sinister George Sanders, is trying to drive her insane after this event. Gary Merrill is the detective who tries to sort this all out while he is falling for Cheryl (Barbara).

The flaw here is in the writing. Sanders, as Mr. Richter, should have immediately been under much more suspicion as he was a former Nazi who came into this country legally. Who can believe that one? In addition, he is an author whose books justify the deaths of certain people. Sounds horribly familiar to me.

Stanwyck gives her usually good performance as a tormented woman who is driven mad by Richter.

The roof scene finale is exciting but comes too late following big errors in the movie writing.

It's interesting that both this film and "Rear Window" came out in the same year, since the base plot is identical: person witnessess murder through apartment window in opposing apartment and spends rest of movie trying to convince everone else what they saw. While the Hitchcock movie is more stylish and elaborate, this film definitely keeps your attention. Typical of movies of the 50's, the villain is disposed of in the climax, thereby eliminating any necessity of bringing them to justice. Stanwyck, as usual, gives her best "woman in distress", hysterical performance.

The John Alton photography is layered thick and shadowy in this late Film-Noir entry. Almost every scene is back lit with diagonals and impressions draping the proceedings and it is this atmospheric artistic display that highlights this often filmed story.

The characters and conventions of the Noir cycle by this time have become familiar but the shear broad strokes of the style are undeniably effective. The odd take on the villain being of Nazi descent with delusions of grandeur while meant to be of a deep personality flaw, is obtrusive and distracts from believability. It is an unwanted and unneeded take on the psychological persona of the killer.

The mental hospital scene is a standout as is the finale through the construction site. The only drag is the relentless unbelieving of the authorities that wears out its welcome fast but in the long view does not hold the film back from its better parts.