WITNESS TO MURDER

WITNESS TO MURDER- The movie starts with a windy stormy night in Hollywood Stanwyck wakes up to close her window. She looks across the street, a man and woman were engaged in a violent struggle, ending with the man strangling the woman until she falls to the floor!
Quickly Stanwyck runs to her phone shouting those famous words: "Help get me the police" ...Then the opening titles come on and I tell myself : "I know I'm going to love this!!"
Well, there are some fun moments in this low budget thriller. The cast for example is pretty good, Stanwyck plays Cheryl Draper a thirty something interior decorator . Reunited from the set of "All about Eve" are George Sanders and Gary Merrill. George Sanders plays Albert Richter, the murderer, a flamboyant writer. Gary Merrill with Jesse White as his partner , are two bumbling policemen who refuse to believe Draper has witness a murder.
Instead of spending time investigating the murder, these "Starsky and Hutch" of 1954 spends their energy to convince Stanwyck she's dreamed the whole thing or perhaps that she is mentally ill. They ask her if she's under doctor's care and things like what kind of dreams she's had.
That's the 50's for you, must be that nut Lucy's been giving women a bad rep , 'cuz all dames are screwballs running around accusing men of committing murders.
Richter, being a former Nazi takes advantage of the police doubts about the witness, decides to discredit Miss Draper by throwing hints of her being a nut case. He accuses her of harassment, make up phony threats and letters.
What does the chief of police do? He throws the witness into the mental hospital against her will, without doctors' authorization they inject her with chemicals to make her sleep.
There's a wonderful mental hospital scene of old women with messy hair, yelling angry crazy talk, follow up with a cat fight. There are some pretty good belly laughs in this movie but it's missing the suspense and thrills the noir films of that era. Stanwyck is usually pretty good and the guys are acceptable. It's a good late night movie to catch when you have nothing to do.

AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER

AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER-
UGH!! Is the only word I can use to describe this slow paced mellow drama starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. The movie starts on an absurd note with a TV gossip shows announcing the engagement of professional playboy Nickie Ferrante and millionairess Lois Clark. Ferrante goes on a cruise where he meets Terry McKay, an obnoxious single woman also sailing on the "Love Boat". The two became center of attention because of Ferrante's celebrity status, later the two middle aged couple fall in love and promised to meet on top of the Empire State building six months later to marry.
They need six months because she needs time to break up with her boyfriend of five years and for him to paint so he can become a famous artist to support her.
The story takes on a terrible turn when McKay gets hit by a car on her to the Empire State building, leaving Grant waiting for her on top of the world during a thunderstorm. So what's a guy to do but to go on a painting bingde but by this time no one cares anymore.
You just learn to hate the characters more and more as the movie go on. There is scene where you meet Grant's annoying grandmother who lives on top of a hill in France where she hides and pray all day long. There she pushes Kerr to fall in love with her grandson totally disregarding the fact her grandson already engaged to someone else.
After being crippled from the waist down from the accident, Terry McKay go into seclusion by being a music teacher at a inner city school. How can you tell it was an inner city school? Because you see one of the parents talking to Kerr in one of those "DEM DEESE AND DOH's" accents. There are several boring musical scenes in the movie, one with Kerr singing in a nightclub and two featuring the kids in the school.
The couple took forever to reunite and then it took another enternity before they come clean to tell the truth about what happened on that fateful day.
I have never seen Cary Grant more annoying and less charming in any movie than this one, I think by this time he has already become a caricature of himself, as for Kerr there is nothing attractive her character. The scene at top of the Empire state where Grant realizes she stood him up, there was a glimmer of hope in me that he would throw himself off.