Cercate quell'uomo

Key Witness is a B movie with B actors, but gets A directing. And the screenplay is so outrageously unlikely that it was highly entertaining for me. It would make a wonderful midnight movie. I would go as Smiley.

The mechanical objects depicted in the film are clever and an integral part of the film. The movie is a bit reminiscent of the hobo classic, Sullivan's Travels, that wonderful 1941 film starring Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake. Quite frankly, I thought that film was better than the Oscar winner that year, How Green Was My Valley.

This film breezes by in just over an hour, and you kind of wish it would have lasted longer. Lots of fun.

Mechanical genius.......or just an eccentric oddball, who might attempt to cross a turkey with a banjo in the hope of producing a bird capable of plucking itself? Sullen supervisor (Harry Hayden) clearly thinks the latter of docile draughtsman, John Beal's fanciful ideas, having no time for his talking clock or innovative interactive light switch. Beal's stock falls even further, when he damages a gift bought for the company boss. Without complaint, the compliant Beal shells out for a replacement.

Domestic life paints a similar picture. Despite a loving wife (Barbara Read), his noble ambitions have fallen foul of the 'too young, too old, wrong time, wrong place' mindset. He's little more than Mr. Mop.....with his talking clock! During his wife's absence, he is initially hesitant about a day at the races (the track meeting, not the movie!), as he has promised to clean up at home. In the event, he cleans up at the track, but celebrations are short lived when he becomes the chief suspect (despite tenuous evidence) in the murder of a female acquaintance. Once again Beal turns out to be the dripping tap, rather than the water cannon, choosing to run away and exist as a hobo. Stealing the documents and adopting the identity of a dead drifter becomes a life changing experience of mammoth proportions, but will his wacky, quirky gadgets be the making or the breaking of him?

Devoid of both a big budget and a big name, 'Key Witness' succeeds by virtue of a big heart. Well acted and consistently satisfying, unconventionally bouncy, buoyant and frothy, but tempered by a pervading dark, forbidding undercurrent and an unnerving twist. An enlightened curiosity, a rare bird......a novelty noir.

A short flick lasting 66' with a largely unknown cast, this shoestring production actually had me riveted throughout thanks to an imaginative script, sharp dialogue, an unassuming leading male character (no frills from John Beal, apart from the apparently useless gadgets he keeps inventing), his disappointed and downputting wife in a surprisingly cynical role by Barbara Read and Charles Trowbridge in a short but effective part as the father of the dead character Beal gets to impersonate.

Better cinematography than this type of C production tended to have.

I thoroughly enjoyed it!

So this lead character is a nice enough guy, pleasant, hard worker, faithful and loving husband, and creative. While at the same time he is also a scared, ineffectual dolt of a guy. The bad decisions that he repeatedly makes throughout this film is only surpassed by the absurdity of unlikely events that follow those poor decisions. It really takes a suspension of logic and believability to stay committed and fully onboard as the story progresses. That's too bad though because like I said it does have any easy, pleasant quality to it, and most of the performances are solid enough to hold the viewer's interest. It's just the unlikeliness of the chain of events to this story that honestly can make it frustrating at times.

John Beal stars in "Key Witness" from 1947. He plays a somewhat henpecked draughtsman, Milton Higby, who is not ambitious enough for his wife. His real aspiration is to be a novelty inventor.

While his wife is out of town, he has incredible beginner's luck at the race track and wins a fortune.

Unfortunately, he has to go on the run when a woman he meets is murdered. He becomes a hobo.

When he and his friend Smiley find a dead body on the railroad tracks, Higby switches identities with him.

This leads to some good things- he is accepted as the long lost son of the hobo's father and is able to pursue his inventions. Then they're recognized as Milton Higby's.

I met the lead in this film, John Beal, some years ago. A very nice man. When I see he's in a film, I watch it. His Broadway career began in 1931 and ended in 1993, his film career was from 1935-1993.

This B movie is actually pretty good and holds interest, in part I think because the Beal character is so sympathetic. Very satisfying film.