I Saw What You Did *** (1965, Joan Crawford, John Ireland, Leif Erickson) – Classic Movie Review 5,654

‘William Castle warns you: This is a motion picture about UXORICIDE!’ Joan Crawford is top billed as the woman who knows about the murder, in the 1965 thriller film I Saw What You Did.

Producer-director William Castle’s 1965 American black and white thriller film I Saw What You Did was deemed good enough for showman Castle not to have to bother with all his usual advertising gimmicks and publicity tricks. Indeed, he was right, he didn’t have to, it is an intriguing, eerie, neat little chiller.

Well, mostly, at any rate. Though there are no on-screen gimmicks, or elaborate effects, such as for The Tingler (1959) when a vibrating device was attached to cinema seats, some American cinemas still installed seat-belts so that patrons could not be ‘shocked out of your seat’.

John Ireland stars as Steve Marak who is after two teenage girls, friends Kit Austin and Libby Mannering (played by Sara Lane and Andi Garrett), whom he believes have seen him murder his wife Judith (Joyce Meadows).

The girls amuse themselves at home by making prank phone calls, randomly dialling numbers and telling the person who answers: ‘I saw what you did. I know who you are’. But then Libby places a call to Steve Marak, who has murdered his wife and disposed of her body in the woods. Marak thinks he’s rumbled and seeks to find the caller and silence her.

But it is Joan Crawford, no less, who is top billed as Ireland’s lover, Amy Nelson, who knows about the murder. Leif Erickson plays Libby’s dad, Dave Mannering.

However, despite the strong competition, it is Lane and Garrett who steal the picture as the teenagers who get into danger when they spend an evening making random prank calls ringing up strangers and uttering the film’s title (‘I saw what you did. I know who you are’). Unfortunately, one of calls of course is to the killer.

William P McGivern scripts from Ursula Curtiss’s 1964 novel Out of the Dark. It was remade as a TV movie in 1988, with Robert Carradine, David Carradine, Tammy Lauren and Shawnee Smith.

Also in the cast are Patricia Breslin, John Archer, Sharyl Locke, John Crawford, Douglas Evans and Barbara Wilkins.

Crawford provided her own wardrobe and jewellery for her top-billed star cameo, and she was paid only $50,000 for just four days’ work. She signed on one month after quitting Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) because of ‘an ailment’. Though it is widely rumoured that her ailment was being sick of working with Bette Davis, ironically William Castle had to ask that Crawford’s doctors to sign a statement saying that she was completely well before he could give her the role.

It was Crawford’s last appearance in an American film. Crawford and Ireland previously together in Queen Bee (1955). Crawford and Erickson also starred in Castle’s Strait-Jacket (1964).

I Saw What You Did runs 82 minutes, is directed by William Castle, is made and released by Universal Pictures, is written by William P McGivern, based on Ursula Curtiss’s novel Out of the Dark, is shot in black and white by Joseph F Biroc, is produced by William Castle, and is scored by Van Alexander.

Release date: July 21, 1965 (US).

The cast are Joan Crawford as Amy Nelson, John Ireland as Steve Marak, Leif Erickson as Dave Mannering, Sara Lane as Kit Austin, Andi Garrett as Libby Mannering, Sharyl Locke as Tess Mannering, Patricia Breslin as Ellie Mannering, John Archer as John Austin, John Crawford as State Trooper, Joyce Meadows as Judith Marak, Douglas Evans and Barbara Wilkins.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5,654

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