The Window (1949)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Beautiful, moving film.

The acting in this movie is really good.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The Window(1949) is a Film that tells the story of a compulsive liar boy who had lied so many times that even his parent would not believe the things he said.Then one night, it just so happen that he saw a murder and everything turns loose. Overall, the Window is your average Film Noir. Full of twist and turns but always fall into something expected. It might have fallen into a more forgettable territory without the wonderful performance of child actor Bobby Driscoll. He just embodied the role and elevated it into something thrilling and exciting especially during the latter part of the film. [7/10]

"Rear Window" writer Cornell Woolrich's short story "The Boy Cried Murder" served as the basis for director Ted Tetzlaff's suspenseful little thriller "The Window," starring Bobby Driscoll, Arthur Kennedy, Barbara Hale, and Paul Stewart. This RKO Radio Pictures urban crime drama seems like it would be rather risqué for 1949 since an adolescent witnesses a murder. However, nobody will take his claim seriously except the murderers. "The Window" benefited from on location lensing in New York City. Tetzlaff doesn't appear to pull any punches in his depiction of tenement living in the Big Apple. Frederic Knudtson received an Oscar nomination for his editing. "The Spiral Staircase" scenarist Mel Dinelli shared an Edgar award from The Edgar Allan Poe Awards with Woolrich. Furthermore, Dinelli was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for "The Window." Tommy Woodry (Bobby Driscoll of "Treasure Island") is the kind imaginative nine-year old kid who cooks up stories about events that would never occur. He told his playmates one afternoon that his family and he were going to leave their Manhattan apartment and move out west to a ranch after the Indians had been driven off it. The landlord calls on Tommy's father, Ed Woodry (Arthur Kennedy of "Champion"), to show another family the apartment, and Ed had to refute what Tommy said about them leaving. This incident upsets Ed and his wife Mary (Barbara Hale of "The Far Horizons"), and they punish their errant son by confining him to his room. Ed works nights to support his family. Later that evening, Tommy convinces his mother to let him sleep on the fire escape because the weather is so warm. Eventually, Tommy decides to climb the fire escape to the next floor and sleep underneath the window of the couple in the apartment. Struggling to go to sleep, Tommy is awakened when he hears a commotion watches through a gap between the window shade and the window ledge as the Kellersons, Joe (Paul Stewart of "Citizen Kane") and Jean (Ruth Roman of "Strangers on a Train"), steal money from an unconscious man. The drunken sailor (Richard Benedict of "The Shrike") catches them trying to fleece him and fights back. The Kellersons stab him to death with a knife and Tommy watches in horror as the man dies. Tommy scrambles back down to his apartment while the Kellersons take the corpse up onto the roof of the building to dispose of it.Tommy tells his parents about the killing. Naturally, they don't believe him. Desperately, Tommy goes to the local police precinct house and regales the detectives with his tale. A skeptical plainclothes detective escorts Tommy back home and checks up on the Kellersons posing as an interior remodeling agent. The detective cannot find anything amiss. Later, Ed learns from Tommy that he sought out the police. By this time, the Kellersons are puzzled about how Tommy knew about the murder, and Joe decides to question him that evening. As it turns out, Ed is away at work while Mary is taking care of her ailing sister. Joe breaks into the Woodry apartment and corners Tommy. They take him out of the apartment after Ed had told his son to stay put while his mother was away. To ensure that Tommy obeys his father, Ed nails Tommy's window shut. Tommy escapes from the Kellersons, but they manage to recapture him. Nevertheless, Tommy gets away from them again after Joe tried to place him on the fire escape so he would plunge to his death. Jean refuses to see Joe murder Tommy. Joe chases Tommy into a condemned building and during this cat-and-mouse episode, Joe steps on a high beam that collapses and the fall kills him. Tommy starts screaming and the neighbors report the disturbance to the police. Meantime, Ed has gotten off work early and come home to find Tommy missing and the front door ajar. He contacts a patrolman on the beat, and the patrolman believes that Tommy has lighted out to see his mother. The patrolman arranges for Ed to take a radio car to his wife's sister's house. When they return to their tenement, they see a crowd and the cops pulling a body out of the wreckage. Tommy tells the police where to find the body of the sailor that the Kellersons rolled.Director Ted Tetzlaff does a good job of creating characters and suspenseful situations. There are some moments of heart-stopping tension when Joe searches for Tommy in a decrepit apartment building. "The Window" exemplifies textbook terror tactics at their best. The ill-fated Bobby Driscoll does a marvelous job as the nine-year old witness to a murder, and Paul Stewart is sinister as the murderer who has no qualms about killing a child.

Barbara Hale, Arthur Kennedy Ruth Roman, Bobby Driscoll and Paul Stewart star in "The Window," a 1949 film.In a takeoff of the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf, Tommy Woodry is an only child with a very active imagination. He is known among his friends and parents as being a teller of tall tales. One night, it's so hot in their New York apartment that Tommy goes onto the fire escape to sleep. There, looking in the next apartment, he witnesses a murder. The problem is, no one believes him. Except the killers.Good nail-biter with lots of references to corporal punishment for kids, which was common back then. It's plenty of violence, too, as well as a dramatic ending.Arthur Kennedy was one of the most underrated actors in show business - though this is a good film, it's a small one, and he deserved something with a higher profile. Barbara Hale, just a few years later would achieve TV immortality as Della Street, Perry Mason's secretary. At 27, Ruth Roman makes an impression as Mrs. Kellerton, who was involved in the killing. She's both beautiful and frightened.The actor who plays the little boy, Bobby Driscoll was very good and continued to work until around 1960, when drugs and a criminal record kept him from getting work. He died at 31 of heart problems, penniless and homeless.Good movie, worth seeing.

Opening with a quote from Aesop, this movie is about a little lad who tells so many stories that no one believes him when he witnesses a real murder. It takes an awful lot for me to forgive a film that centers around a child, especially an obnoxious one like this. The very similar TALK ABOUT A STRANGER couldn't do it, despite the talents of John Alton. I hated young Bobby Driscoll throughout the picture and he's undoubtedly its weakest link. His pouting and whining and "golly gee" demeanor are very grating. But director Ted Tetzlaff otherwise delivers a stunning noir. The photography is amazing, capturing the grittiness, desperation and danger of the urban setting beautifully. The script is solid, building tension at a steady pace, culminating in a lengthy and gripping chase sequence through a decrepit abandoned building. Tetzlaff clearly learned something about suspense as the cinematographer on NOTORIOUS. A great film with a lousy protagonist.