Harrison's Reports (1954)

62 HARRISON’S REPORTS AprU 17, 1954 “Witness to Murder” with Barbeu-a Stanwyck, George Sanders and Gary Merrill (United Artists. April; time. 83 min.) A pretty tense murder melodrama, revolving around the frightening experience of a woman who witnesses a killing but who is unable to convince the pohce that the crime had been committed because of the clever machinations of the suave killer. What proves frightening to the heroine is the fact that the murderer, posing as an harassed citizen, leads the pohce to suspect that she is mentally unbalanced and even succeeds in having her committed to a hospital for psychiatric observation. Barbara Stanwyck gives a sensitive performance as the distraught heroine who tries desperately to prove that there is nothing wrong with her mind and that a murder had been committed. George Sanders is competent as the polished but vi' cious villain, as is Gary Merrill as a pohce lieutenant who falls for Miss Stanwyck but beheves that she is obsessed with the idea that Sauiders is a killer. There is considerable excitement in the closing scenes, where Sanders pursues Miss Stanwyck to the top of a sky' scraper under construction in an effort to kill her. This chase is climaxed by some cliff 'hanging hokum that should hold most movie'goers in tense suspense. The photography is good, but nearly all of it is in a low key: — Awakened by a nightmare, Barbara goes to her win' dow to adjust the blinds and sees Sanders strangling a girl to death in his apartment across the street. Her call to the poHce brings Merrill and Jesse White, his assistant, to the scene, but they can find no evidence of a murder in Sanders’ apartment and tell Barbara that she must have had a bad dream. Annoyed by this conclusion, Barbara decides to play detective herself and manages to obtain a pair of earrings from Sand' ers’ apartment. She rushes to Merrill with this clue, only to find that Sanders had reported the theft of the earrings, which he had described as “family heir' looms.” Sanders magnanimously declines to press charges of robbery against Barbara and indicates that she is mentally unbalanced. Merrill’s professional in' terest in Barabara becomes a personal one, but, when she desperately seeks confirmation of what she knows had happened, he believes that she is suffering from a fixation. Meanwhile Sanders, hoping to convince the police that Barbara really is unbalanced, sneaks into her apartment and uses her stationery and typewriter to write a series of threatening letters to himself. He then uses these letters to demand police protection from Barbara. She denies writing the letters, but, when it is proved that they were typed on her ma' chine, she becomes hysterical and is committed to a city hospital for psychiatric observation. She wins her release, however, through Merrill’s influence. In the course of events, Barbara meets up with Sanders and he casually admits to her that he had murdered a girl — a wanton woman who had threatened to blackmail him. He tells this to Barbara because he knew that the police would not believe anything that she tells them, and he tries to force his attentions on her, but she manages to elude him. Complications arise when the dead girl is found in the park and when Merrill finds a clue linking her with Sanders. To protect him' self, Sanders decides to kill Barbara and to make her death appear suicidal. His efforts to kill Barbara result in his pursuing her to the roof'top of a new building under construction. Merrill, joining the pursuit, catches up with Sanders before he can harm Barbara, and in a desperate struggle the detective manages to send Sanders plummeting to his death down an open elevator shaft. Chester Erskine wrote the screenplay and pro' duced it. Roy Rowland directed it. Adults. “Arrow in the Dust” with Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray and Keith Larsen (Allied Artists, April 25; time, 79 min.) A fair outdoor program melodrama, photographed in Technicolor. Revolving around fights between hostile Indians and U.S. Army men, the story has substance and considerable melodramatic action. Un' fortunately, the script is rather weak and so is the direction, in spite of the fact that the director has done good work in the past with stories of this kind. There are times when the proceedings are given more to talk than to action, resulting in the pace slowing down considerably. But since the battles between the Indians and the Army men have been staged in thrilling fashion, one may overlook the slow spots. Children in particular should get a kick out of the battles. The color photography is only fair : — Sterling Hayden, a cavalary heutenant who had deserted his command, learns that a wagon train headed west was in danger of an attack by Indians, and attempts to overtake it so as to render whatever assistance he could. He comes upon a group of slaughtered soldiers, and finds Carleton Young, his cousin, still alive but dying. With his last breath. Young, a major, pleads with Hayden to overtake the wagon train and to do what he can to get it to Fort Laramie. Hayden is hesitant on the ground that, if he should reach the Fort, he would be arrested as a deserter and punished. But Young, appealing to Hay' den’s better nature, persuades him to save the lives of the women and children in the wagon train. With Young dead, Hayden dons his major’s uniform. He catches up with the wagon train and, posing as a major, takes over command from Keith Larsen, a West Point lieutenant. Aided by Jimmy Wakely, John Pickard, Tom Tully and other guides. Hay' den orders the train to move ahead, knowing that the Indians would not attack at night and thus hoping to gain distance. The bravery of Coleen Gray, a courageous girl traveling with the train, inspires Hayden to acts of heroism. Through Tully, Hayden learns that the Indians were attacking because Tudor Owen, the civilian leader of the train, was carrying a load of contraband repeating rifles that he had prom' ised to sell to the Indians. To obtain the rifles, the Indians had to exterminate the Army men. Hayden decides to destroy the guns, and when he accomplishes this, the Indians cease their attacks. Instead of run' ning away, Hayden, with Coleen at his side, accom' panies the wagon train to Fort Laramie, hopeful that he would be given a light sentence for desertion in view of his heroism in bringing the wagon train to the Fort in safety. Hayes Goetz produced it, and Lesley Selander di' rected it, from a screenplay by Don Martin, based on a novel by L. L. Foreman. Family.