Eyewitness

Ida Lupino may rightfully earn credit as the only influential female director in the noir cycle, but fans would be wise not to overlook the Englishwoman Muriel Box, whose Eyewitness, her only noir, is a solid little crime thriller which also boasts a female-penned script. After arguing with her husband about his extravagant purchase of a television set, Lucy Church (Muriel Pavlow) leaves in a huff and takes in a show at the local movie theater, perhaps a symbolic depiction of TV’s threat to the film industry in the mid-fifties. When she stumbles upon two burglars robbing the theater safe, they shoot the manager and run after Lucy, a thrilling chase winding through hallways and down stairs, ceasing only when Lucy’s hit by an oncoming bus in the street outside. The rest of the film follows burglars Wade (Donald Sinden) and Barney (Nigel Stock) as they tail Lucy’s ambulance to the hospital with the goal of eliminating her (their only witness) for good. Scenes of genuine suspense and psychotic obsession fortunately aren’t hampered by the presence of lightly comedic supporting roles, such as annoying elderly patient Granny (Ada Reeve) who has cried wolf about prowlers a few too many times, and the hapless, innocent Barney, who relies on his hearing aid to make sense of the world. Despite a few flaws of logic and a slightly disappointing ending, Eyewitness is a dense, well-crafted tale about one woman’s night of peril (not a single scene takes place in daylight).