BLIND WITNESS

US, 1989, 92 minutes, Colour.
Victoria Principal, Stephen Macht, Paul Le Mat, Matt Clark.
Directed by Richard A. Colla.

Blind Witness is a telemovie thriller, a murder story with the focus on a blind woman. It is in the tradition of Wait Until Dark with Audrey Hepburn and Blind Terror with Mia Farrow. The star is Victoria Principal, co-executive producer of the movie. She gives a sturdy performance - though the screenplay has her move into the violent melodramatics of the angry victims of the '80s. Steven Macht has a short, good role as her murdered husband. Paul Lamat and Matt Clark are convincing as the detectives.

The film highlights the sensitivity of the blind - and the insensitivity of seeing people towards their capacities. Enjoyable thriller, if familiar.

1.Telemovie thriller? Murder? Detective work? Vengeance?

2.The Salt Lake City settings, homes, business? The city? Musical score? Editing and pace? Violence?

3.The title, the focus on Maggie? Her ability as a witness? People's belief and disbelief?

4.The establishing of Maggie's character, her blindness and its background, her ability to cope? Her job? Relationships? Popularity? Her love for Gordon? His work? The new house? The surprise party? Love for her husband? Meeting the workers? The noises in the night, the attack, the death and her reaction?

5.What she heard, smelt, felt? Her report to the police? The scepticism of the detectives? Their having to adapt to her? The hypnotism and her providing more information? The smell and her tracking it down? Running into dangers? The murderers returning and threatening her? The line-up and her sensitivity? The build-up to the confrontation? Mike and his help, the phone calls? In the apartment? The confrontation? The fight? The vindication of her stance? Maggie as a character, her fears and terrors?

6.The murderers, their greed, brutality? Lack of remorse? Return to threaten Maggie? Seeing her with the police? Their strategies? The car and trying to kill her in the garage? Invading her home, the confrontation? Her torturing them, the set-up of the video and the cameras? The murderer eluding her? The fight with Mike?

7.Mike, the senior detective? Investigations, slips about blind people? Scepticism? Mike and his alcoholism, support, investigations, clues? Going to the apartment, the fight, his saving her? The senior detective and his having to change his position?

8.Maggie, the friends, their support? The memories of Gordon and her grief?

9.The plausibility of the plot? The characters, the situations? Robbery and violence? Murderers? The role and efficiency of the police?