6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
A woman's sanity comes into question after she claims to have witnessed a murder from her apartment window.
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, George Sanders (I), Gary Merrill, Jesse White, Harry Shannon (I)Film-Noir | 100% |
Drama | 62% |
Crime | 15% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.75:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.75:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 16-bit)
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Quick—name a 1954 movie where a nosy neighbor spies out of their apartment window and believes they’ve witnessed a murder, only to find out no one believes them. Rear Window, right? Well—yes and no. Alfred Hitchcock’s claustrophobic masterpiece is one of the master’s most beloved fifties’ outings, offering a nice (albeit debilitated) turn by James Stewart as injured photographer Jeff Jefferies, who, holed up in his flat with a broken leg, begins noticing all the sometimes bizarre vignettes playing out in neighboring apartments that he can spy into across a courtyard. But about four months or so before Rear Window hit cineplexes a by now largely forgotten film opened with much the same setup, if admittedly a far different execution and success quotient. Witness to Murder posits Barbara Stanwyck as Cheryl Draper, a woman who arises on a stormy, windy night to shut her front window, coincidentally at the same time an across the street neighbor seems to be murdering a woman, all right there in full view inside of his window. Cheryl, panicked of course, immediately calls the police, but those darn cops show up with lights blazing and sirens blaring, leading the murderer to peer outside of his window, figure out that he might be in trouble, leading him to quickly find a hiding place for the corpse in his home. When the cops come to question the man, who turns out to be a natty, somewhat unctuous guy named Albert Richter (George Sanders, in typically smug mode), there’s no evidence of any struggle, aside from a torn curtain (hey—maybe Hitchcock saw this film!), which Richter goes to some lengths to disguise. That sets up the rest of the film, where an increasingly desperate Cheryl tries to get the goods on Richter, while Richter, no wilting wallflower a la Raymond Burr in Rear Window, goes to work trying to make sure everyone thinks Cheryl is an apt candidate for the looney bin.
Witness to Murder is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber Studio Classics with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.75:1. This is a fairly modest looking high definition upgrade, though there are moments when depth, contrast and clarity outshine the bulk of the presentation. Things are frequently soft and rather heavily grainy, perhaps indicating this was sourced at least partially from dupe elements. There are, however, some striking exceptions (see screenshot 16 for a good example). The majority of this transfer features underwhelming black levels and anemic contrast. That's especially unfortunate in that the film was lensed by the wonderful John Alton (An American in Paris), who lights a number of scenes very evocatively in a quasi- noir fashion. There are no signs of digital manipulation, however, so neither artificial sharpening nor noise reduction play into the appearance of the film.
Witness to Murder's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono mix provides suitable support for a fairly talky enterprise, with somewhat less full bodied support for Herschel Burke Gilbert's punchy brass inflected score. Dialogue is presented cleanly and is well prioritized. There's no real damage per se, though the track's age is apparent in a somewhat boxy way.
Witness to Murder is a middling effort that unfortunately can't quite get out from under the looming shadow of Rear Window, a film that tops it in directorial acumen and development of the premise. There are still some interesting elements here, including the fact that the entire setup takes place behind the opening credits sequence, and a couple of well done suspense scenes, including the segment where Richter hides the corpse. But if you see only one film about a nosy neighbor spying through a window and witnessing a murder, make it Rear Window.
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