Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		2.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.5

I Saw What You Did Blu-ray Movie Review

"I'm giving the orders now."

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson January 30, 2017

With the collapse of the studio system in the early sixties, Golden Age stars like Joan Crawford and her chief rival Bette Davis sought lower budgeted projects that were often beneath their talents. Crawford and Davis famously collaborated (and clashed) on the set of Robert Aldrich's What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). Crawford was also tapped by Fox to co-star with Davis again in Aldrich's follow-up film, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) , but her running feud with Davis reportedly forced her off the picture. Crawford and Davis went their separate ways as their careers took divergent paths. Crawford teemed with horror filmmaker William Castle in Columbia's Strait-Jacket (1964), which was a hoot with audiences and critics. I Saw What You Did, which followed Castle's The Night Walker (1964), brought the filmmaker and star together once again but under different circumstances. Universal was seeking a younger actress to portray a love-obsessed widow living next door to a psychopath in a California suburban neighborhood. Crawford became top billed on I Saw What You Did because this B-grade suspense thriller needed a name actor to bring it major star power.

Crawford is more of a supporting player opposite John Ireland and two prurient teens who are best friends. Libby Mannering (Andi Garrett, who went on to do "The Wild Wild West" TV series shortly thereafter) invites close friend Kit Austin (Sara Lane, who later worked on the TV Series, "The Virginian") over to the country house while Libby's parents, Ellie (Patricia Breslin) and Dave Mannering (Leif Erickson), drive to Santa Barbara for a social and business visit with acquaintances. Libby wants Kit to sleep over but after Kit informs her principled father John Austin (John Archer) that Libby's folks will be gone, he insists that he pick his daughter up at 11:30 later that night. The Mannerings were hopeful that a babysitter could look after Tess (Sharyl Locke), Libby's perky and sassy nine-year-old sister, but after the sitter becomes ill, that task falls to Libby and her friend. Libby and Kit, along with Tess, decide that it would be a fun game to pick up the telephone directory and randomly select residents to make prank calls to. Tess even calls an older lady pretending to be stranded at a movie theater and requesting that the stranger phone Libby to pick her up. Judith later reaches one Judith Marak (Joyce Meadows) and asks to be connected to her husband, Steve Marak (John Ireland), who is taking a shower. Unbeknownst to the girls, something terrible is imminent in the Marak household. Libby has a fantasy that Mr. Marak is a young dreamboat and has no idea who he really is or what he's done.

Libby, Kitt, and Tess play a deadly game of telephone prank calls.

Next-door neighbor Amy Nelson (Joan Crawford) hears racket and enters the house from the open door in the back. After coming into the bedroom, Amy encounters a frazzled Steve and demands to know what is wrong. Steve admits that his estranged wife Judith was preparing to leave him and has now departed him for good. Amy is a lonesome widow with "lots of money" and who has a crush on Steve. Amy is also needy and imperious. She thinks that Steve will have a much better life with her than he had with Judith, who she believes was too young for Steve to marry. Libby grows increasingly interested in Steve and after posing as "Suzette" with him over the phone, she utters a phrase that will later haunt her: "I saw what you did, and I know who you are!" Steve takes this proclamation literally and propositions "Suzette" to meet him to arrange a business deal. Libby unwittingly convinces her friend to ride along with Tess and her as she drives (underage) her mother's station wagon to the Marak home.

Crawford shares considerably less screen time than Ireland and the leads but makes the most of it. She chews up her scenes both with Ireland and with Garrett, who she reprimands for snooping in the Maraks' yard. She delivers a maternal diatribe to Libby and rips out the vehicle registration information from the side of the steering wheel. Garrett and Lane exude a lot of spunk but in their characters' naiveté, they also expose their inexperience as actors. William P. McGivern's screenplay, adapted from Ursula Curtiss' novel, Out of the Dark, contains some memorable quotes for Crawford but it also delivers schlock and campy material. Van Alexander's original score is a double-edged sword. On one side, it contains a catchy tune typical of sixties era "Bubblegum" pop music, not unlike Nelson Riddle's themes for the "Batman" TV series. It was probably written for an audience familiar with American Bandstand, too. On the other side, the score shifts to darker and brooding tones, sometimes mimicking Dimitri Tiomkin and Bernard Herrmann's scores for Hitchcock's films. The mood of I Saw What You Did constantly fluctuates, making it an occasionally suspenseful but inconsistent genre picture.

I Saw What You Did Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

I Saw What You Did makes its inaugural debut on Blu-ray worldwide courtesy of Shout! Factory. The film was unavailable in the LaserDisc and VHS era until Anchor Bay released it in 1999 with a letterboxed transfer on DVD. Universal later reissued the movie as a manufactured-on-demand disc under the studio's "Vault Series" banner. Shout! has encoded a 2K transfer of I Saw What You Did on this AVC-encoded BD-25 boosting a total video bitrate of 32.18 Mbps. The label presents Castle's film in the aspect ratio of 1.78:1, which approximates its projected theatrical ratio of 1.85:1. Shout! advertises this as a new 2016 HD transfer but this is a bit of a misnomer. Analyzing the opening credits (which are quite crisp), I could tell that this print derives from a digital intermediate and not an upconverted DVD. However, the transfer is struck from a dated master emanating from Universal's vault. I disagree with MONO DIGITAL's take that the transfer delivers "a very clean, clear, satisfying presentation." The image quality varies to the degree that it is essentially a tale of two transfers. On the plus side, blacks are pretty deep and grayscale is outstanding most of the time. The grayscale on the daylight scenes, however, can tend to look too homogeneous amidst the California countryside with a somewhat hazy appearance. (See Screenshot #13.) The outdoor shots taken during the day exhibit the weakest contrast. There are film artifacts, predominantly white speckles (as well as black specks), tramlines, and scratches that periodically mar the print from to start to finish. In addition, a half-dozen shots contain cue marks on the upper right-hand corner of the frame. (See #s 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20.) These cue dots come in two forms: first, as a motor cue (a mark indicating that the reel will conclude in about eight seconds); and second, as a changeover cue (a mark appearing one second before the next reel should be loaded). Reel-change marks appeared on the transfers of some early DVDs of older films but there is no excuse for why Universal/Shout! could not have eliminated them for the DI that went on this Blu-ray.

I Saw What You Did Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Shout! supplies the original monaural track of I Saw What You Did as a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, which gives a fairly wide dispersal of the film's sound track. Dialogue is pretty clean throughout and I didn't feel the need to activate the optional English subtitles. Van Alexander's two alternating musical styles sound solid and are spread evenly across the two front channels. I also listened to this recording on headphones and noticed a little analog hiss throughout the first half of the film. (The hiss dies down during the second half.) There are a couple of very minor crackles but only hardcore audiophiles will spot them if they listen attentively. The track is audibly clear for the most part.

I Saw What You Did Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Original Theatrical Trailer and "Special World Premiere Announcement" Trailer Featuring William Castle (2:38, 1080i) - Universal's unrestored teaser trailer for I Saw What You Did is presented in letterboxed 1.78:1. This is followed by a publicity stunt with William Castle in the director's chair addressing the camera. Taking a cue from Hitchcock with a cigar in his mouth (think of the Master's promotional shots for The Birds), this short piece demonstrates the showmanship of Castle, strapping a seat belt to his chair, a gimmick that US theaters equipped cinema patrons with so they could "strap themselves in" as they awaited the picture's next moment of suspense. Both the trailer and brief promo have been upconverted to 1080i from analog sources. In English, not subtitled.

• Photo Gallery (3:41, 1080p) - illustrated with a backdrop containing a collage of production stills and press clippings from I Saw What You Did. This photo gallery features forty-five images comprised of publicity shots, colorized international movie posters, colorized lobby cards, an exhibitor's manual Universal provided to theater chains, and the pressbook. The images are placed in the middle and gradually come closer to the screen, à la a PowerPoint slide show. Shout! could have digitized the manual and pressbook as PDF files for BD-ROM access. The text in the articles and ads is too small and should have been enlarged for reading purposes.

I Saw What You Did Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I Saw What You Did is a fun ride even though it is an erratic and maligned low-budget suspense thriller. The movie still needs to receive a full restoration by removing all of the anomalies present on this transfer. The picture is okay and remains the only version available at present. I look forward to seeing more of William Castle and Joan Crawford's films come to Blu-ray. A MINOR RECOMMENDATION for I Saw What You Did and purchase it in the $13-$18 range.