EYEWITNESS
UK, 1956, 82 minutes, Black and white.
Donald Sinden, Muriel Pavlow, Belinda Lee, Michael Craig, Nigel Stock, Susan Beaumont, David Knight, Ada Reeve.
Directed by Muriel Box.
Eye Witness is a small British thriller from the mid-'50s. It is well done of its type. It has the terrorised housewife, criminals trying to get at their victim in a hospital, some comedy by one of the obstreperous patients who exasperates the nurses as well as the criminals. There is a good British cast of prominent stars of the time. Direction is by Muriel Box.
1. An entertaining suspense thriller? British? Of the '50s?
2. London locations, homes, the streets, hospitals? Black and white photography? Editing and pace for suspense? Musical score?
3. The title and its indication of theme? Lucy as the eye witness and victim? The danger for Wade and the criminals?
4. Lucy at home, her love for Jay, the quarrel? Her leaving, going to the pictures? Her going home, the seeing of the robbery at the cinema? Her being chased? Her being knocked down by the bus, her amnesia? in hospital? Her being stalked by the criminals? The dangers In the hospital? Her not knowing who and where she was? Wade and his kidnapping Lucy? The danger of her being killed? Her being saved? Her regaining her memory - and her husband? A portrait of the ordinary housewife being terrorised?
5. The criminals and their plans, their code amongst themselves, the robbing of the cinema safe? The killing of the manager? Wade and his control over the group? Barney and his pursuit of Lucy? Wade and Barnes and their stalking Lucy - the sequences in the hospital? Wade disguising himself as a hospital orderly, his taking Lucy, Barney's reaction and his killing Wade? A sketch of common criminals?
6. Jay and his quarrel with Lucy, anxiety at home?
7. The hospital: the administration and the running of the hospital, the taking of the amnesia case? Penny and her nursing on the ward? Dangers? The group of hospital characters? Mrs Hudson and her witnessing Wade coming into the hospital, his eluding pursuit and people not believing her? The touch of humour?
8. The conventions of this kind of thriller, the emphasis on suspense and audience identification?
