Sunday, August 16, 2020

Movie review - "Eyewitness" (1956) **1/2

 Decent thriller which is written and directed by women and also two of the three leads are women.  One wishes it were better. It is well directed but the story isn't enough to sustain a feature. It should have been. There are plenty of characters who could have been developed more.

The story is far too simple. Muriel Pavlov and Michael Craig argue. She witnesses a murder. Gets hit by a bus. The killers go to hospital to try and silence her. That's a fantastic set up. But the film has all these characters they don't use - the husband just sort of hangs around. Use him - make him a baddy, or help the baddy, or die. This nurse in the hospital, Belinda Lee, looks as though she's going to be important - but she never figures out what is going on. She has this American serviceman boyfriend - you think he's going to be killed, or be bad, but... no. 

The heroic stuff is done by some patients - a little girl and a little old lady (good on Box for doing this) and the fellow murderer. But it's all so linear.

I think the film should've been played from Lee's POV - this mystery patient comes in and Lee figures out what's going on, gradually, along with the audience. We meet Donald Sinden but don't know if he's good or bad. Ditto Michael Craig (both could claim to be Pavlov's husband for example). Play out the romance with Knight instead of having it all be resolved ("let's get married" "okay"... why not have some conflict? Some attraction?) I think the killer should've had a closer relationship with the eyewitness.

Look the film is fine. I just think the story needed a rejig. It's stylishly show.

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