Eyewitness

Donald Sinden usually made sympathetic heroes and amiable gentlemen, but here he is a professional on the other side. With a blacksmith for an aid he breaks into a safe at a cinema, but unfortunately the robbery is jeopardised by an eyewitness and a manager arriving before the job is finished, so he has to be terminated. The rest is the tragedy of the two criminals, one ruthless and the other helpless. They go to the hospital where Muriel Pavlov as the eyewitness is taken in with a concussion after having been knocked down by a bus, running away from the murderer. It's in the hospital all the action takes place, in a wonderful polyphonic hide-and-seek merry-go-round, where Grannie as one of the patients actually is the lead, constantly observing the murderer and never being taken seriously. This is indeed gem of hospital thrillers, and all the characters, odd and serious, add to the splendid show of artfulness in invention - only you as an audience understand and see everything that happens, while all the actors can't understand a thing - until after the film is finished, and you as an audience will have to guess the rest.

One night Lucy argues with her husband, in anger she runs off to the cinema. Leaving the film early she witnesses two men rob the cinema, one of them, Wade kills the Cinema manager, Lucy runs off in fear, and faces a night of sheer terror.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, I had expected a bit of a pot boiler, but far from it, it's a very good plot, with some excellent characters, and some real tense moments.

It has touches of melodrama at the beginning and end, but the main core of the film is a suspenseful thriller, with Lucy placed in permanently danger.

The patients are lovely characters, particularly Mrs Hudson, Grandma, she was so amusing. Sinden and Pavlow are just great here.

I'd recommend it, 8/10.

Fans of those black-and-white British crime dramas of the 50s and 60s will appreciate Eyewitness, and its a cut above most in that genre. Suspense is maintained well in a hospital setting, with generally capable performances all round. For 1956, this film doesn't shy away from showing violence, and has a good, sinister atmosphere.

A man's wife runs out, because he bought a TV. 1957! Then she witnesses two men robbing the theater. She runs and is hit by a bus. The two bad guys spend the rest of the movie trying to kill the eyewitness. Again 1957. Then the husband takes three quarters of the movie to go to the police or hospital when she doesn't come home. One of the bad guys isn't really bad. Give me a break. By the end of the film I had completely lost interest. Why didn't they leave town? She only saw one hit the manager. She didn't see the shooting. Her husband is dumb and so is the plot. But one thing is true today. and that is hospitals are dangerous. Think! You're lying there sedated, and anyone could come in an kill you.

Muriel Pavlow quarrels with husband Michael Craig and walks out.... and goes to the movies. After a while, she goes to phone home, but sees Donald Sinden and Nigel Stock robbing the theater's safe. They chase her into traffic, where she is hit by a car. "Good enough," says Stock. "Nonsense," says sociopathic Sinden. "We'd best go to the hospital and if she isn't already dead, smother her with a pillow. It will be jolly" -- or words to that effect.

It's a movie that is watchable to the end, but more because of what it attempts to do than because of what it succeeds in. The script shows some nice gender reversal in the relationship between Miss Pavlow and Mr. Craig for the era, and it's shot so dark for much of its length that the actual key events, of Mr. Sinden being menacing can't be seen -- only his calmly and rationally insane voice. It's a lovely idea, but doesn't quite work for a motion picture, alas.