Witness to Murder

“Show Mr. Peabody to the library, please,” chants the elderly psychiatric patient in the bed next to Cheryl Draper (Barbara Stanwyck) in one of the most beautiful, sensory scenes in Ray Rowland’s Witness to Murder (the scene also features a sultry blues refrain by Juanita Moore, another patient). Independent working girl Draper has been committed to a mental hospital for claiming she witnessed a murder in a neighboring apartment for which there’s no evidence and for sending the alleged murderer threatening letters that she can’t recall writing. George Sanders plays the murderer, former Nazi and Nietzsche scholar Albert Richter, and Gary Merrill plays police detective Lawrence Mathews, who falls for Cheryl despite doubting her claims. Consistently lush cinematography by the revered John Alton elevates the film from a Rear Window (1956) wannabe (in fact, Witness to Murder was released one month earlier than Hitchcock’s similarly plotted masterpiece) to an atmospheric thriller with psychological complexity and visual depth (note, for example, the use of high angle shots to convey anxiety).