{"id":29775,"date":"2022-05-29T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-29T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=29775"},"modified":"2022-05-20T22:08:38","modified_gmt":"2022-05-21T02:08:38","slug":"witness-to-murder-1954-z-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=29775","title":{"rendered":"“Witness to Murder” (1954) \/ Z-View"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Witness to Murder <\/strong><\/em>(1954)<\/p>\n

Director:\u00a0 Roy Rowland<\/strong><\/p>\n

Screenplay:\u00a0 Chester Erskine, Nunnally Johnson<\/strong> (uncredited)<\/p>\n

Starring:\u00a0 Barbara Stanwyck, George Sanders, Gary Merrill,\u00a0 Jesse White<\/strong>\u00a0and Claude Akins<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tagline: No one would believe what she saw that night… not the police… not her friends… no one — but the murderer himself!<\/em><\/p>\n

The Overview:\u00a0 Beware of Spoilers\u2026<\/p>\n

Looking out of her window one evening, Cheryl Draper (Stanwyck) witnesses a murder committed in an apartment across the way.\u00a0 The murderer sees the police arrive, and by the time they get to his room, he’s hidden the body in an empty apartment.\u00a0 Albert Richter (Sanders) greets the police as if he’s been awakened from a sound sleep and he couldn’t be more accommodating.\u00a0 The police report back to Miss Draper that she was mistaken.<\/p>\n

The next day Miss Draper sees Richter putting a trunk into his car and driving away.\u00a0 She’s convinced that he’s disposing of the body.\u00a0 Draper decides to get into his apartment to find evidence and then go to the police.\u00a0 Unfortunately for Cheryl Draper, it’s like the movie’s tag line says: No one believes what she saw that night… not the police… not her friends… no one — but the murderer himself!<\/p>\n

Witness to Murder<\/em> was released in 1954, the same year as Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window<\/em>.\u00a0 The release year isn’t the only thing the films have in common,\u00a0 The plots of each have someone witness a murder in an apartment across the way and no one believes it but the murderer.\u00a0 Hitchcock’s film is a classic, and Witness to Murder<\/em> is under-rated.<\/p>\n

Witness to Murder<\/em> wastes no time to get the story going.\u00a0 The black and white photography adds a feeling of menace.\u00a0 Although Barbara Stanwyck is the first billed star, it is George Sanders who steals the show.\u00a0 While the “insane” woman aspect of the movie is dated, Sanders’ portrayal of a sociopathic killer who is always steps ahead of the witness and cops could have been written today.\u00a0 Several familiar faces show up: George Sanders, Gerry Merrill, Jesse White (the Maytag repairman!) and even an unbilled Claude Akins.<\/p>\n

Witness to Murder<\/em> is a fun ride.\u00a0 Clocking in at a fast-paced one hour and twenty-three minutes, it’s a journey you might enjoy.\u00a0 I did and that’s why I give Witness to Murder<\/em> 4 of 5 stars.<\/p>\n

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Witness to Murder (1954) Director:\u00a0 Roy Rowland Screenplay:\u00a0 Chester Erskine, Nunnally Johnson (uncredited) Starring:\u00a0 Barbara Stanwyck, George Sanders, Gary Merrill,\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,54,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime","category-movies","category-z-view"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29775"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29776,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29775\/revisions\/29776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}