Das unheimliche Fenster

"The Window" is a rich and underrated tale of urban terror from a ten-year-old's perspective. Tommy Woodry is jolted from his innocent world of make believe games when he witnesses a murder in the middle of the night. Making the terror all the worse is that the murderers are his upstairs neighbors, the Kellertons, and neither the police nor his parents will believe his story. The terror grows darker when Tommy's only protection, his parents, leave for the night because of shift work and family illness. The music and lighting brilliantly reflect the evil that begins with nightfall and the removal of his parents. When the Kellertons kidnap Tommy, even pretending to be his parents to fool the police, bad "parents" replace the good ones. "The Window", in a way, is the opposite of the classic "These Three" of thirteen years earlier. In the latter, the lies of a young girl (Bonita Granville) regarding adult wrongdoing are believed without reservation, with swift and devastating consequences. "The Window" also nicely showcases the hard life of the working class in 1949: the only telephone is at the drug store and the apartments are cramped and dilapidated with no modern appliances. Paul Stewart, as Joe Kellerton, plays his villainous role with a cool, almost smug arrogance, while Bobby Driscoll, as Tommy, expertly handles the role of an innocent child drawn into the gritty ugliness of urban violence. The movie maintains a fast pace, with total suspense all the way to the nail-biting end, and every second of it is worth watching.

The central figure of 'The Window' was a slum ten-year-old boy (Bobby Driscoll), living in New York poor neighborhood and known to everyone there as a teller of fantastic stories…

His parents (Arthur Kennedy and Barbara Hale) warned him he must stop his fantasies… and what followed was a classic up-dating of the boy who cried 'wolf' once too often…

One stifling night, the boy climbed out on to a fire escape to seek cool air and, through a crack under a window blind, he witnessed a murder…

He knew no one would believe him although this time, for the first time, his story was true… He tried to tell his mother that he had seen a couple called Kellerson trying to rob a drunk and killing him in a fight: the boy got scolded for his imagination and sent to bed… His father locked him in for punishment; the boy escaped and took his story to the police station. A detective investigated, but could find no body, no signs of a struggle…

Now the awful irony: the guilty Kellersons learn through the detective that the boy had seen them committing the crime, and the boy's parents, with terrifyingly understandable logic, send the boy to the killers to apologize 'for spreading such an awful story about them'.

The Kellersons cannot decide: should they leave well alone, as nobody believes the boy; or should they commit another crime to cover the first?

'The Window' is a classic little second feature, entertaining and suspenseful; unfortunately it had few successful imitators

Young Bobby Driscoll (Tommy) makes up stories to his friends and to his parents. One night, he sleeps on the fire escape outside the apartment of Paul Stewart (Mr Kellerson) and Ruth Roman (Mrs Kellerson) where he witnesses them commit a murder. When he tells his parents Arthur Kennedy and Barbara Hale about it, they dismiss him. In fact, they punish him. Even the police don't believe him when he reports the murder to them. Poor kid. No-one believes him. It's not long before Paul Stewart and Ruth Roman find out that he knows something and set a plan in motion to silence him.

There are many tense scenes as Driscoll faces his nightmare all alone. The audience shares his fear as the killers have him next on their list. The acting is realistic as is the dialogue. The film also has eerie sections (eg, Ruth Roman outside Driscoll's window with a torch as he hides in his locked room) and dramatic moments (eg, when the killers kidnap Driscoll and put him in the back of a cab and they encounter a policeman). The strategy that Paul Stewart and Ruth Roman use to shut him up during the cab ride is genius. It's very funny and demonstrates perfect teamwork.

Children are usually annoying in films. Not here. A dramatic ending in a disused apartment block adds to the tension. Worth watching again. The way the movie is filmed and the location all add to the experience of a film that is actually quite scary in parts.

The claustrophobic cinematography makes this film. You feel cramped and trapped as does our young hero. The tenements are lit just enough for you to imaging all sorts of horrors within. The ending was evidently rushed and a bit hokey; the director et al. could have fleshed it out a bit more

This is a very real film, in that we all know children who 'fabricate' as easily as they breath. Bobby Driscoll was superb. I've never seen his Disney work -- now I'll keep my eye out for his name.

I loved seeing a younger Arthur Kennedy (before he played only drunks) and a plain but always pretty Barbara Hale (pre-Perry Mason). Both were excellent and demonstrated a range I never gave them credit for.

The theme of a murder being witnessed by someone who no one believes, is based on the familiar concept of "cry wolf once too often and no one will believe you when you're telling the truth". Here it's played to the nth degree by an excellent cast--Bobby Driscoll, Barbara Hale, Arthur Kennedy, Ruth Roman and Paul Stewart--and directed in realistic, gritty style by Ted Tetzlaff. The New York tenement setting is an absorbing environment for this chilling tale of a boy who is in danger when the murderers know they have been seen--and must come to grips with his situation without the aid of his parents or police. Based on a Cornell Woolrich story, it's so tight and suspenseful for the length of its running time that it effectively projects the dark, nightmare world where one's worst childhood fears can come true. With the dark ambiance of lower East Side tenaments as its setting, danger and death seem to entrap the boy in every lurking shadow until his ultimate pursuit by the killers. This is a modest thriller that achieves a maximum of suspense thanks to the skillful performance by child star Bobby Driscoll and bears a resemblance to other Woolrich stories, as for example 'Rear Window'. Barbara Hale and Arthur Kennedy register strongly as the parents. Ruth Roman and Paul Stewart are a chilly pair as the neighbors from hell.