Key Witness

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!

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.

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.

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.

The plot to "Key Witness" is one that is filled with many crazy coincidences...so many that you have to completely suspend disbelief in order to enjoy the movie.

Milton Higby is a pretty normal sort of guy who has lived a relatively unimportant life. One day, when his wife is away to see her aunt, he goes to the racetrack and makes a bet which earns him a small fortune. He naturally celebrates and gets pretty drunk...and a woman he barely knows lets him sleep it off in her bedroom. While he's sleeping, the woman's crazed ex-husband arrives and murders her...and vanishes. Now people think Milton is a killer...and he hit the road to avoid the police. While a hobo, he stumbles upon a body. He takes a few things off the body...after all, the dead guy's not going to need it. Almost immediately after, he steps off a curb and is hit by a car. He lands in the hospital and based on the things in his pocket belonging to the dead guy, they think he's a rich guy's long lost son. Milton tries to convince them he isn't...but after a while, he gives up and goes along with it. After all, life as Milton Higby isn't an especially good idea! What's next? See the film.

Despite being a film with a bad plot, it's STILL interesting and possibly worth seeing. In other words, you really need to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy what you're watching...and you REALLY need to suspend disbelief repeatedly. My suggestion is still watch the movie...accepting its limitations but also understanding that the story, though unbelievably farfetched, is worth seeing.