WITNESS TO MURDER (1954)

For a movie that goes out of its way to mock the television cop dramas of the day, the screenplay for 1954’s Witness to Murder is ironically conventional and topped off with cliché. In spite of this, and the fact that stars Stanwyck and Sanders are playing characters we’ve seen too many times already, the film is still a treat — owing primarily to the charisma of the actors and the films delicious use of light and shadow.

Barbara Stanwyck stars as Cheryl Draper, a stylish but aging urban woman rapidly approaching spinsterhood. Her fiancé was shot down over Europe, and she’s been alone and lonely ever since. Awakened one night by a fit of tossing and turning, Cheryl goes to her window and she sees man in an adjacent apartment building strangling a woman. She witnesses the final moments of the young girl’s life, as arms fall limp from the struggle and her body crumples to the floor. Cheryl calls the police, and in moment of pure contrivance, the black and white prowl car rolls up to her apartment building with the siren blaring. This alerts the killer, who we discover to be George Sanders, and he quickly hides the body in a vacant apartment next door. When the cops finally knock at his apartment door, he’s able to convince them that a mistake has been made, and they are quick to believe him.


As it turns out, Richter (Sanders), despite his perfect British accent, is some sort of true believer from Nazi Germany, posing as an academic refugee. He’s making time with some rich hairbag in Palm Springs, so he can’t afford to have Stanwyck messing up his master plan. In an effort to discredit her he sneaks into her apartment and composes threatening notes to himself on her typewriter. When she continues to badger the unbelieving cops, Richter hands over the harassing notes, and the chief commits Cheryl to the mental ward for a night of observation. Good-egg cop / suitor Gary Merrill finally springs her, but not before Cheryl begins to believe she might have made the whole thing up.


By the time the dumped body of the murdered girl is discovered in a vacant lot, a la Betty Short, Sanders has decided the best way to get clear of the whole mess will be for Cheryl to throw herself out the window of her apartment in a suicidal moment of despair. As he’s explaining all of his machinations to a horrified Cheryl, Merrill and chum are searching the dead girl’s flop, where they find one of Richter’s hardbacks hidden in a desk. Just as Richter is about to pull the lever on Cheryl, and Merrill is hauling ass to the rescue, she breaks free and flees the apartment building to a hi-rise construction site down the block. She races to the top, Richter close on her heels, as Merrill crests the rooftop and saves the day, sending Richter to his death down an empty elevator shaft.


Although the story of Witness to Murder is indeed conventional, there are a few of aspects of the production that merit discussion. First is the lighting, which is arguably the most stylishly artistic in the oeuvre of film noir. It’s almost as if in an effort to combat demon television, legendary director of photography John Alton lit his shots to desperately exaggerated proportions. Although Alton’s work is always dramatic, (Raw Deal, Border Incident) none of his films approach such ultra-composed extremes of light and dark contrast. Alton uses extreme close-ups, low angles, and isolated spots to great effect. The work was almost certainly influential as well. Look no further than two Hitchcock films, Rear Window and Vertigo — though the similarity to the latter film is more striking, especially in the composition of the final sequences of both films, which involve high angle shots of figures ascending perilous sets of stairs.


The most exciting scene in Witness to Murder occurs when Cheryl is confined in the LA city hospital mental ward. She finds herself stranded along with three other women in a scene that is as eerie as it is expressionistic. An elderly woman quietly whispers a delusional mantra to herself, creating a monotonous rhythm that lasts the duration of the scene. She is joined by Jaunita Moore (Imitation of Life, 1959), painfully credited as “Negress,” who sings a soft and hypnotic blues number to herself, while a street smart broad cracks wise and gives Cheryl the lowdown on how to manage the system for quick departure. All while a Nurse Ratched type lurks malevolently, keeping both eyes on Cheryl. The scene is composed and lit beautifully, with each woman in turn throwing long, ominous, and forbidding shadows upon the lonely canvas of back wall. Everything Cheryl sees is effectively exaggerated, and we know with the same certainty as she does that the doctors and nurses are not to be trusted.


Witness to Murder is a worthwhile film just on the basis of its performers and visuals. However the screenplay and other aspects of the production play as desperate — the visuals have been exaggerated (it worked) and everything but the kitchen sink has been thrown into the story, including the ultimate: making the killer a Nazi for no reason germane to the story (it didn’t). Had more restraint been exercised, this would undoubtedly be regarded as a minor classic today.

Witness to Murder (1954)

Director: Roy Rowland
Cinematographer: John Alton
Screenplay: Chester Erskine
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, George Sanders and Gary Merrill.
Released by: United Artists
Running time: 81 minutes