Hostile Witness

"Hostile Witness" is a British film starring Ray Milland, who also directs.

Milland plays an excellent barrister, Simon Crawford, whose daughter is killed in a hit and run accident. Crawford vows that if he finds the person who did it, he will kill him.

Later on, his neighbor is found dead, and Crawford is blamed. He decides to defend himself when his counsel, a young woman (Sylvia Syms) whom he's mentoring, quits in anger.

This is a neat mystery that will really have you guessing up to the denouement, what people are calling here "a Perry Mason moment." Ray Milland shouts his way through this, and I was very aware of his hairpiece. His hair fell out after it was curled for Reap the Wild Wind in 1942. The rest of the acting is fine, particularly from Syms, but Milland has the largest role.

"Hostile Witness" is one of those grand, old fashioned British courtroom dramas that can be lots of fun. Fun, but dangerous when it comes to the telling because the 'buy in' as to who did what and why needs at least a little bit of believability, something sadly missing in action here.

Briefly, barrister Ray Milland is accused of murdering an old judge he had accused of running down and killing his daughter. Hitting him extremely hard, he has a mental breakdown followed by a three month convalescence after which he is 'cured.' But returning to work does not necessarily mean putting the past behind him and getting on with life because Milland is arrested and committed to trial. The barrister is now in the dock, and he isn't handling it very well. Let the games begin!

When I first saw "Hostile Witness" on the stage of the Music Box Theatre in New York in 1966, I quite liked it even though I quibbled that some of the actors in general 'and Ray Milland in particular tended to speak too quickly, making themselves a little difficult at times to understand.' Unfortunately things have gone from bad to worse with the screen version, a film that first showed up on United Artist's release schedule in 1968 but was never seen. Little wonder as "Hostile Witness" comes across as a poorly constructed artifact from a bygone era. Thundering and screaming and yelling and bulldozing its way to its laughable conclusion, it is just so out of touch with 1968, which is probably why it never got a North American release. Now its 'old-fashionedness' would probably be okay if the film had been a 'period piece.' But it wasn't. It was ostensibly set in 'modern London.' So why aren't there any references to London's many mod' characters, swinging Carnaby Street, The Beatles or The Rolling Stones?

I wish I could like "Hostile Witness" because I love British courtroom dramas. But courtroom dramas that make a modicum of sense, contain some colourful characters and have punctuated shading in pace and performances. Again, missing in action all!

Ray Milland, when tightly reigned in by A-list directors like Fritz Lang, John Farrow, Billy Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock can be amazingly effective. But left to his own excesses and he is not only insufferable, but as the film's director he also ensures that so also are many of those around him. Only Sylvia Miles, Norman Barrs, Felix Aylmer and Julian Holloway manage to rise above their material, and even here the results are decidedly mixed.

What the movie "Hostile Witness" is is basically an episode of the television show "Perry Mason", though filmed in color and having a feature length running time. Actually, it's based on a stage play by Jack Roffey, who also wrote this movie's screenplay. The stage origins of this movie are pretty clear; most of the movie takes place in a courtroom. But that wasn't a real concern to me, since I enjoy plays as well as movies. Though while this play turned movie can't be considered awful or bad, it all the same feels like familiar stuff. While there is the novelty of it taking place in England, otherwise you will have seen this kind of story done many times before. If you can't get enough of "Perry Mason" or similar courthouse movies and TV shows, you will probably enjoy this. Otherwise, most likely you'll find this particular telling unexceptional.

1967's "Hostile Witness" was the last of five feature films to be directed by actor Ray Milland, who also starred in each one, dating back to his 1955 Western "A Man Alone" (his best known was AIP's "Panic in Year Zero!" in 1962). The experience of starring in Jack Roffey's successful Broadway play (which he also toured in the US and Australia) led Milland to helm this movie adaptation at London's Shepperton Studios, the stationary camera reminding us of its stage origins yet still engaging with a veteran cast of stalwarts like Felix Aylmer (as the presiding judge), Raymond Huntley (as the prosecutor), Richard Hurndall (as the investigator), and especially Sylvia Syms as Milland's promising young clerk, whose services are sorely missed once he begins to defend himself. His barrister Oliver Crawford is as arrogant as he is confident in his victorious ways, only to see his world come crashing down with the unexpected death of his only daughter, the victim of a hit-and-run right outside his home. After spending three months recovering from the tragedy, the barrister returns to work but is quickly sidetracked by the murder of a trusted friend who is presumed to have been guilty of the crime, circumstantial evidence pointing to Crawford as the guilty party. At this point we never leave the courtroom, and the viewer cannot be certain if a nervous breakdown could be responsible for turning Crawford into an undeniable killer. Milland acquits himself well though the story tends to bog down near the end of its 102 minutes, his screen career only picking up again three years later as Ryan O'Neal's stern father in the hugely successful "Love Story."

I am not that big a fan of courtroom drama but quite enjoyed this one, probably because of the decent cast, especially Milland in the lead. I see that it is based on a Broadway play but is transposed to London. I suppose British courts have a more pictorial value in the gowns and wigs than do American courts. Talkng of wigs, though, the one adorning Milland's head when out if court is no more real-looking than the lawyer's wig he wears in court !