Touches You

Thanks for the memories!

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

In the fifties, the dubbing of foreign movies, who treated the subject Nazis or ex-Nazis, were often different from the original. And because nearly all foreign movies and TV-shows had been dubbed in German, nobody realized the difference. Today, of course, you can find all the information on the web. In the German dubbed version the name of the murderer is Gabor Rethy. In the German version, also the scenes are cut out, where Richter is referred as an old Nazi, there is also a different version of the book cover. Besides that, this movie is a very fine example of a film noir, with great actors as Barbara Stanwyck, George Sanders and Gary Merrill.

"Witness To Murder" is a modest but entertaining thriller with some sensational cinematography and a couple of conspicuously good performances that more than compensate for its rather unremarkable plot. The story doesn't score high on originality or contain many twists but it is, nevertheless, very engaging because it's hard to resist the need to know how the plight of its main protagonist plays out. Some passages are also suspenseful and the climax is tense and exciting.One night, Cheryl Draper (Barbara Stanwyck) witnesses the murder of a young woman in an apartment on the opposite side of the street to her own. She clearly sees the killer strangling his victim to death and then promptly telephones the police to report what she's seen. When Lieutenant Larry Mathews (Gary Merrill) visits the alleged murder scene, there is no dead body or any evidence of a crime having been committed and so he assumes that Cheryl must have imagined or dreamt the incident.On the following day, Cheryl sees Albert Richter (George Sanders) pushing a large trunk into a station wagon and recognises him as the strangler. Through her own investigations, she discovers that there's a vacant apartment adjacent to Richter's in which he could have hidden the body when the police called and some marks on the floor seem to support this theory, as they indicate that something heavy had recently been dragged from one side of the room to the other.Despite the fact that nobody is convinced by what she says, Cheryl keeps repeating her accusations and whenever she offers some further evidence of Richter's guilt, he cleverly provides a plausible explanation. The longer this goes on, the more convinced the police become that she's irrational and Richter exploits this situation by giving the police some letters (which he claims she wrote) that show that she's mentally ill and clearly intent on persecuting him. The police believe that the letters were written by Cheryl and soon after, have her committed to a mental hospital for observation. The ways in which she navigates her way through this experience and eventually devises a plan to convince the police of Richter's guilt are both intriguing and entertaining to watch.George Sanders is tremendous as the villain of the piece and convincingly slimy as a seemingly sophisticated author who's actually a political fanatic and a callous murderer whose only motive is pure greed. Barbara Stanwyck is also excellent as the remarkably determined Cheryl who continues to persevere despite all the difficulties that she confronts. The way in which Stanwyck portrays Cheryl's mixture of fear and toughness is very well balanced and subtle and adds considerable interest to each new plot development.An unexpected feature of this movie is John Alton's amazing cinematography which does so much to enhance the mood of the piece. The expert way in which light and shadow are used and camera angles are exploited to emphasise certain moments are truly outstanding as well as being aesthetically pleasing.

The premise for "Witness to Murder" is very good but the film suffers from one serious problem--the writing. In the movie, the police almost immediately assume that a person who reported a murder is either wrong or crazy. Maybe I am a bit naive, but I really don't believe that the police would be so fast to do this and would take a reported murder A LOT more seriously. However, in the world of this film, they very quickly assume this is the case...too quickly to be realistic. Later, other such stupid assumptions sink the film."Witness to Murder" begins, not surprisingly, with Barbara Stanwyck looking out her apartment window and seeing a woman being killed in an apartment across from hers. She does what any person would do--contacts the police. And, almost immediately they assume she is wrong! Later in the film one of the cops (Gary Merrill) starts to wonder and actually begins to do his job! But, the smooth killer contacts the idiot police Captain and convinces him that he's being harassed by Stanwyck--and they lock her in the loony bin! I was frustrated by the film--it just assumed something that the film simply didn't establish. Had they had Stanwyck ACT crazy or the police investigated thoroughly THEN they assumed she was wrong it COULD have worked well.Fortunately, the film did get better...for a while. Once Stanwyck was released from the hospital, Sanders actually torments her--telling her that he DID kill the lady but that now no one would believe her! This was great--and I really wanted to see more of this. But, it then gets stupid again when Sanders is in her apartment late in the film and a neighbors SEE this and hears Stanwyck cry for help, they immediately assume she's crazy--even though they have no idea about the investigation and police opinions about Stanwyck's sanity. If a neighbor cried out for help, I sure as heck would have done SOMETHING!!! The bottom line is that the acting is fine--the writing was not. However, it's is a VERY frustrating movie. It could have been good and had a good cast...but ultimately was crap due to wretched writing...just wretched.

Witness to Murder (1954)This talented, gripping crime drama is a little outside the party in many ways, and even now it shamefully falls under the radar with reviewers and on wikipedia. But if you overlook a couple of creaky elements, like the police carelessly revealing their witness to the killer at the start, you will find a great B-noir.I say B-noir because it was produced by Chester Erskine Productions (this is their only movie) and released by United Artists (who distributed lots of the independent small company releases). And this is interesting because the movie has a stellar cast. The leads alone are big name stuff, Barbara Stanwyck and George Sanders. But keep going down the list and you'll find both detectives are well known noir and drama actors (especially Gary Merrill), the apartment manager is the guy who shouts out the window in "It's a Wonderful Life," and there is the incomparable Juanita Moore (from Sirk's "Imitation of Life") in a insane asylum scene.Add to this ace noir cinematographer John Alton ("Border Incident" and "The Big Combo") and uncredited screenwriter Nunnally Johnson ("The Three Faces of Eve" etc.) and you have all the ingredients for a great movie. And it is great in many ways. The plot itself, which I don't like to spend time on, is a classic one--someone sees a murder out their window. And of course, the murderer finds out they've been seen. If this sounds like Hitchcock's "Rear Window" you are right, and there are many echoes, even with the killer showing up at the witness's apartment. But wait just a second--both movies are the same year. In fact, "Witness to Murder" was released first by nine months. At the time, it did fine at the box office, but it is history, and the vagaries of video release through various studios who buy and sell rights to these movies, that has forgotten this. And with the plot so similar to "Rear Window," the less flashy, black and white, low budget "Witness to Murder" never had a chance against the Technicolor Hitchcock release, which is a far more inventive masterpiece. Stanwyck and Sanders maybe be approaching their years of decline in popularity (Stanwyck had a second birth in television's "Thorn Birds"), but they are both great here. When Sanders breaks out in German, it's a shock because it is utterly convincing. And when Stanwyck does anything, like take the burning supper out of the oven, or light a match, or run for her life, she does it with modern, natural ease. This is a smart movie, and director Roy Rowland's best movie, from what I can tell--neither you nor I are likely to see any of the others (of his fifty movies, two are available on Netflix, DVD and streaming both).But see this one. It uses lots of clichés, but it uses the very well.