Or perhaps it was in fact a matter of the industry trying to capitalize on a theme that briefly stood in the limelight of moviegoers’ conscience that year. For all we know, the brief period between the exhibitions of these two movies was no more than coincidence.
#WITNESS TO MURDER MOVIE MOVIE#
What iconic movie came out on September 1 st of that same year? None other than Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, in which a photographer (James Stewart), confined to a wheelchair in his apartment following an accident, believes a murder has occurred in one of the homes across the courtyard.
Interestingly enough, the film had its theatrical releases on April 15 th 1954 in the United States. While no noir can probably match Decoy for sheer lunacy (that movie literally resurrects a dead chap, thus instantly earning a gold medal), director Roy Rowland’s Witness to Murder doesn’t stray too far with regards to sheer gusto and bravura when throwing its protagonist through the ringer and then some. Night Shyamalan blush, including a trip to a mental institute. What follows are enough twists and turns to make M. Cheryl is having none of it, and takes it upon herself to dig up dirt on Richter and prove his guilt. Mathews comfortingly tries to explain to a panicky Cheryl that she probably didn’t actually see what she thought she did. Lawrence Mathews (Gary Merrill) and his partner off the trail. The suspect, middling author Albert Richter (George Sanders), is a clever fellow, fiendish and quick witted enough to throw Lt. Cheryl quickly calls the police, who go about their business by investigating the premise and the gentleman’s home. Moments later, the victim fall completely limp, the life squeezed out of her. One night while alone at home in her upper middle class apartment, Cheryl Draper (Barbara Stanwyck) looks out from her window and takes notice of a horrifying act in the dwelling across the street from hers: a man is strangling a woman. Keep that year in mind and read on for the plot synopsis below. If Decoy (reviewed for the column last summer) was Exhibit A in strange storytelling, Friday Noir presents Exhibit B: Witness to Murder, released in 1954. Filmmakers try to get too bold, too adventurous with the labyrinthine plots, incurring the risk of losing focus, and by extent the audience’s interest. The argument that so-and-so film ‘doesn’t know what it wants to be’ is both tired and still regularly apt. When the stars align, a certain film can permit itself to go off the deep end with a few unexpected gonzo tricks, yet still keep its themes and story sufficiently cogent. Some films don’t have to follow recognizable templates in order to be good, rollicking pieces of entertainment, or captivating character explorations for that matter. Written by Chester Erskine and Nunnally Johnson
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