''Eyewitness'' is a 1956
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
thriller film
Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...
directed by
Muriel Box
Violette Muriel Box, Baroness Gardiner, (22 September 1905 – 18 May 1991) was an English screenwriter and director, Britain's most prolific female director, having directed 12 feature films and one featurette. Her screenplay for ''The Seventh ...
and starring
Donald Sinden
Sir Donald Alfred Sinden (9 October 1923 – 12 September 2014) was a British actor.
Sinden featured in the film ''Mogambo'' (1953), and achieved early fame as a Rank Organisation film star in the 1950s in films including ''The Cruel Sea (195 ...
,
Muriel Pavlow
Muriel Lilian Pavlow (27 June 1921 – 19 January 2019) was an English actress. Her mother was French and her father Russian.
Film and television career
Muriel was born in Lewisham, south-east London, to Boris Pavlov, a Russian émigré and ...
,
Belinda Lee
Belinda Lee (15 June 193512 March 1961) was an English actress.
A profile for the British Film Institute's Screenonline website asserts: "of all the Rank Organisation's starlets, Belinda Lee stands out as the most notorious, yet paradoxically ...
,
Michael Craig,
Nigel Stock and
Richard Wattis
Richard Wattis (25 February 1912 – 1 February 1975) was an English actor, co-starring in many popular British comedies of the 1950s and 1960s.
Early life
Richard Cameron Wattis was born on 25 February 1912 in Wednesbury, Staffordshire, the ...
. It was made by the
Rank Organisation
The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment conglomerate founded by industrialist J. Arthur Rank in April 1937. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the United Kingdom, owning production, distribu ...
.
Plot
After an argument with her husband, Lucy Church storms out of her house and goes to see a film at the local
cinema
Cinema may refer to:
Film
* Cinematography, the art of motion-picture photography
* Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of a moving image
** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking
...
. While coming back from making a phone call, she stumbles across the office where she witnesses the murder of the cinema manager by two criminals Wade and Barney who are in the process of robbing the cinema's safe. When they pursue her, she is struck by a bus and is taken to hospital. Unable to leave the town until they know what has happened to her, the two robbers head to the hospital to observe her. Meanwhile, her husband Jay Church has grown concerned and scours the town searching for her.
At the hospital the medical staff attend to Lucy and place her in a quiet
ward
Ward may refer to:
Division or unit
* Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward
* Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...
although she has yet to regain consciousness. Wade, watching from the nearby
shrubbery
A shrubbery, shrub border or shrub garden is a part of a garden where shrubs, mostly flowering species, are thickly planted. The original shrubberies were mostly sections of large gardens, with one or more paths winding through it, a less-rememb ...
realises that if she lives she would be able to identify him and he would be hanged for murder and he decides to murder her in spite of the protests of his partner, Barney, who has grown disillusioned with his sinister intent. Wade is uninterested and beats him. He several times tries to enter the hospital to suffocate her but is repeatedly foiled, by the watchfulness of an elderly patient and a series of interruptions by the nurse's boyfriend, an expectant father and the watchman and dog on their rounds.
Eventually, Wade assumes the disguise of a hospital
orderly
In healthcare, an orderly (also known as a ward assistant, nurse assistant or healthcare assistant) is a hospital attendant whose job consists of assisting medical and nursing staff with various nursing and medical interventions. The highest ro ...
and takes Lucy to the
operating theatre
An operating theater (also known as an operating room (OR), operating suite, or operation suite) is a facility within a hospital where surgical operations are carried out in an aseptic environment.
Historically, the term "operating theater" refe ...
where he plans to murder her – only to be prevented by the sudden reappearance of Barney, his associate.
Cast
*
Donald Sinden
Sir Donald Alfred Sinden (9 October 1923 – 12 September 2014) was a British actor.
Sinden featured in the film ''Mogambo'' (1953), and achieved early fame as a Rank Organisation film star in the 1950s in films including ''The Cruel Sea (195 ...
as Wade
*
Muriel Pavlow
Muriel Lilian Pavlow (27 June 1921 – 19 January 2019) was an English actress. Her mother was French and her father Russian.
Film and television career
Muriel was born in Lewisham, south-east London, to Boris Pavlov, a Russian émigré and ...
as Lucy Church
*
Belinda Lee
Belinda Lee (15 June 193512 March 1961) was an English actress.
A profile for the British Film Institute's Screenonline website asserts: "of all the Rank Organisation's starlets, Belinda Lee stands out as the most notorious, yet paradoxically ...
as Nurse Penny Marston
*
Michael Craig as Jay Church
*
Nigel Stock as Barney
*
Susan Beaumont as Probationary Nurse
*
David Knight David or Dave Knight may refer to:
*David Knight (American football) (born 1951), former American football player
*David Knight (CND), chair for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament 1996–2001
*David Knight (cricketer) (born 1956), Australian cric ...
as Mike
*
Ada Reeve
Ada Reeve (born Adelaide Mary Reeves, 3 March 1874 – 5 October 1966) was an English actress of both stage and film. Reeve began to perform in pantomime and music hall as a child. She gained fame in Edwardian musical comedies in the 1890s.
R ...
as Mrs Hudson
*
Avice Landone
Avice Landone (1 September 191012 June 1976) was an English actress who appeared in British television and film.
She was born in Quetta, British India, and made her screen debut in the 1948 film '' My Brother Jonathon''. From 1961 she co-starre ...
as Night sister
*
Richard Wattis
Richard Wattis (25 February 1912 – 1 February 1975) was an English actor, co-starring in many popular British comedies of the 1950s and 1960s.
Early life
Richard Cameron Wattis was born on 25 February 1912 in Wednesbury, Staffordshire, the ...
as Anaesthetist
*
George Woodbridge as Hospital security man
* Gillian Harrison as Molly
*
Nicholas Parsons
Christopher Nicholas Parsons (10 October 1923 – 28 January 2020) was an English actor, straight man and radio and television presenter. He was the long-running presenter of the comedy radio show '' Just a Minute'' and hosted the game show '' ...
as House Surgeon
*
Leslie Dwyer
Leslie Gilbert Dwyer (28 August 1906 – 26 December 1986) was an English film and television actor.
Career
He was born in Catford, the son of the popular music hall comedian Johnny Dwyer, and acted from the age of ten and appeared in his firs ...
as Henry Cannon, expectant father
*
Allan Cuthbertson
Allan Darling Cuthbertson (7 April 1920 – 8 February 1988) was an Australian-born British actor. He was best known for playing stern-faced military officers in British films of the 1950s and 1960s.
Early life
Cuthbertson was born in Perth, W ...
as Detective Inspector
*
Thomas Heathcote
Thomas Heathcote (9 September 1917 – 5 January 1986) was a British character actor, a former protégé of Laurence Olivier.
He was educated at Bradfield College in Bradfield, near Reading in Berkshire, England. His films included '' A Night ...
as Tom, the Barman
* Anna Turner as Mrs. Hays
*
Anthony Oliver
Anthony Oliver (4 July 1922, Abersychan, near Pontypool, Monmouthshire, Wales—November 1995, London) was a Welsh film, television and stage actor.
Selected filmography
* ''Once a Jolly Swagman'' (1949) - Derek
* ''All Over the Town'' (1 ...
as Podge
*
Hal Osmond
Hal Osmond (27 May 1903 – December 1959) was a British stage, film and television actor. He played Anselm in ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' episode "Errand of Mercy" (1956).
Selected filmography
* '' Once Upon a Dream'' (1949)
* ''Vote for H ...
as Hospital Doorman
Production
The lead role of a murderer was a change of pace for actor
Donald Sinden
Sir Donald Alfred Sinden (9 October 1923 – 12 September 2014) was a British actor.
Sinden featured in the film ''Mogambo'' (1953), and achieved early fame as a Rank Organisation film star in the 1950s in films including ''The Cruel Sea (195 ...
, who did extensive research for the part, modelling his performance on
Neville Heath
Neville George Clevely Heath (6 June 1917 – 16 October 1946) was an English murderer who killed two young women in the summer of 1946. He was executed in Pentonville Prison, London, in October 1946.
Early life and career
Neville Heath was bor ...
. The film was shot in mid 1956. It was one of several "sensible girl" parts Lee played for Rank.
Michael Craig wrote Box's "skills as a director were confined to the ability to say 'Action!' and 'Cut!' She was a very nice lady, a bit like a deputy headmistress, but her main concern while filming seemed to be how the set was dressed."
Critical reception
''Variety'' called it "A neatly made, unpretentious thriller that should do well for the home market... makes for suspenseful action, although the story is improbable in some of its twists. Pic is well acted and well served by its director and camera crew.
''Monthly Film Bulletin'' thought the theme "was a servicable one; but here the producers have so over-laden the storyline with cosy comic characters as to make wonder if their intention was to deliberately guy their material. Only Nigel Stock and the spirited Ada Reeve emerge with credit and the melodrama is unadventurously developed.."
''
TV Guide
TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...
'' gave the film two out of five stars, noting "a nice little thriller by the Sydney and Muriel Box team" ; while ''Britmovie'' wrote, "the minor suspenser has several threads but unfurls with a good sense of timing and provides both excitement and light-hearted moments of humour. Donald Sinden, a rather bland leading man, successfully attempts a very different character role, conveying all the ruthlessness of the cold-blooded killer. There’s also a fine supporting role from Nigel Stock as a deaf safe-breaker."
[
In his memoirs, Sinden wrote the film "is now shown on television more frequently than any of my other films, but ironically when it first opened, to rather bad press reviews, commercial television was in its infancy and yet to make the impact that was to change the lives of everyone in the country, not the least those in the Rankery."]
References
External links
Eyewitness
at Letterbox DVD
Eyewitness
at BFI
Eyewitness
at TCMDB
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of Atl ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eyewitness (1956 Film)
1956 films
Films directed by Muriel Box
1950s thriller films
British thriller films
Films shot at Pinewood Studios
Films produced by Sydney Box
1950s English-language films
1950s British films
British black-and-white films