Testigo del crimen

Edward G. (Emile) is an old codger going about friendly business as he drops by to say "Hi" to fellow old codger Sam Jaffe (Abe). Well, someone doesn't like Jaffe too much, turns up and puts an end to Jaffe and his life journey. Eddie G. is a witness so takes a blow as well but he survives. When he awakes, his pal is dead and there is a network of witnesses who remember things differently. We, as the audience, know that he is telling the truth surrounding the demise of his friend. Can he get his message across?

This is the 70's so, thankfully, the restrictive film legislative codes have been lifted and evil can now triumph. The soundtrack is cool in a nostalgic way and the film ends memorably. I have to admit to being disappointed but it is definitely not the note expected. That's what makes it memorable and that's the dilemma..

The film leads us through the movements of an old guy being chased which gets annoying because guess what…… he falls over….Eeeurgh!.... Corny…..!! But this might just save the old guy. There isn't much more to understand or follow up in terms of character study. There are good guys and there are bad guys. We just go with the Eddie G flow.

Man, TV movies in the '70s were so much better than they are today. Hell, many of them are even better than theatrical films today. This is an engrossing movie starring the great Edward G. Robinson as an elderly man who sees his friend murdered but can't get anyone to believe him. It's a well-written and fairly gritty picture with a fine cast of familiar faces backing up Robinson, who's just dynamite. The ending is a bit of a downer but that was the '70s for you.

Other reviewers seem to be picking on "why didn't anyone believe him" as a major flaw with the film. I just can't disagree more. I mean, were we watching the same movie? First, there's the underlying theme of how the elderly are treated at the heart of all this. The well-meaning but full-of-it shrink even compares them to adolescents. Second, there's the fact that there wasn't one shred of evidence to back him up. They spent the majority of the film showing him trying to convince people only to have it repeated over and over that there simply was no proof. So it was his word versus the evidence, which is all that would matter in reality to anyone but those who loved him. The son was the most sympathetic to his plight and even that wasn't much. The daughter-in-law, the real villain of the piece in my view, seemed like she couldn't muster an ounce of sympathy for the sweet old man. I half-expected her to be in on the cover-up! There simply was nothing to back up what he was saying. And the shrink going out investigating, which at least one reviewer took issue with, was more about the shrink trying to prove to the old man that he was wrong than it was about trying to seriously investigate the case.

I have watched this movie a long time ago, but i have a vivid memory of it. It was often mentioned as an example for how a thriller should be made. This is TV at his best - it will not get any better. Everything is perfect - plot, direction, and what a performance by Robinson, Balsam and the rest! Robinson shows that he was capable of much more than playing mob bosses. Balsam is one of the most underrated character actors of his time. I can hardly count all the movies he was in, and in every single one he delivered a solid performance. I earlier days "The old man who cried wolf" was considered a classic and aired often. Sadly i never saw it on VHS or DVD. I also did not hear that it was aired lately on any major TV Station.

Personally, I love movies about old people, and particularly when starring acclaimed and extremely experienced veteran actors/actresses in the autumn of their careers. It might just be my impression, but it always feels like these ageing stars try extra hard to give stellar performances in their last films, as if they need to prove they are still as capable and talented as they were 40-50 years ago. I always use "The Whales of August" or "The Straight Story" as example, but I might as well add "The Old Man Who Cried Wolf" to the list, since Edward G. Robinson is stupendous here in one of his final lead performances.

Robinson was about 77 or 78 when depicted the role of 70-year-old Emile Pulska (usually actors are older than the characters they play, but here it's the other way around); - a wise and respectable man of Polish origin living in New York. One day, he witnesses how a black mobster beats his best friend Abe Stillman to death with a rubber stick, and Emile himself gets injured as well. When he regains consciousness, everybody claims that Abe died from a heart-attack and that Emile fell and hit his head. Emile clearly remembers what he saw, but nobody believes him. The police and eyewitnesses believe that the old man suffers from overactive imagination, and even his loving son and daughter-in-law begin to doubt their father's sanity and seek psychiatric help. Emile is strong and stubborn, though, and escapes from whatever mental clinic to seek out the truth.

This entire TV-movie revolves solely around the brilliantly charismatic performance by Robinson. That's not bad, of course, but it could have been even better if the script was more elaborated, and if more time and effort had been put in the unraveling of the murder plot, the background of several fascinating supportive characters and the backgrounds of both Abe and Emile. Now, with a running time of barely 72 minutes, everything feels rushed, and the ending comes abrupt and leaves far too many questions unanswered. Gradually, the plot of the film shifts from Emily trying to discover why his friend got murdered, to Emily having to persuade the entire city of New York that he's not a useless, senile and paranoid senior citizen. That's a missed opportunity and a shame, really.

In this made-for-TV movie, Edward G. Robinson G. Robinson is a retired furniture dealer. He visits his old friend, Sam Jaffe, who runs a candy store in run-down San Pedro. Jaffe has a thousand dollars he wants to get to his sister in Poland. He wants to know if Robinson can help it get it to her without the cops taking it. Then a large Black man comes into the store, beats Jaffe with a rubber hose. When Robinson comes to, Jaffe is dead, and the police say it was a heart attack. No one will believe Robinson, not even his adoring son, Martin Balsam. Instead, they think he is going senile, and call in psychiatrist Edward Asner, who takes him to the hospital for observation. But Robinson is not losing his mind. He is right, and the world begins to close in around him.

There's a fabulous cast of old-time actors in this movie supporting Robinson, including Ruth Roman and Jay C. Flippen. Robinson gives a heartbreaking performance as an old man, losing his way physically but not mentally. I had many an elderly relative like this at the time this movie was made, and it's spot on. It one of the reasons that Robinson was a performer I would watch if he announced he was going to read a phone book.