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.