The Window **** (1949, Bobby Driscoll, Barbara Hale, Arthur Kennedy, Paul Stewart, Ruth Roman) – Classic Movie Review 3714

Director Ted Tetzlaff’s engrossing and impeccably handled 1949 film noir thriller The Window stars Bobby Driscoll, as a mischievous lad called Tommy who is prone to crying wolf. One hot summer night, he tells his parents Mrs and Mr Woodry (Barbara Hale and Arthur Kennedy) about a murder he has seen being committed on the floor above, and naturally no one believes him – except, that is, the murderers (Paul Stewart and Ruth Roman) themselves.

To avoid the heat of a sweltering Manhattan night, nine-year-old Tommy decides to sleep on the fire escape outside the Kellersons’ apartment, as it is one storey higher than his, with more cool air up there. But through the window, he witnesses the Kellersons killing a man. Naturally, Tommy’s parents and the police won’t believe his story but the Kellersons want to silence him.

This excellent little movie version of a short story called The Boy Cried Murder by Cornell Woolrich (Rear Window, The Bride Wore Black) is a gem of a thriller, small in scale maybe, but tense, punchy and atmospheric. And it is tautly directed by former cameraman Tetzlaff, with a splendidly beady eye on the characters, the mood, location and the atmosphere, as well as the details and development of the story. It is even advertised as ‘daringly filmed on New York’s teeming East Side’.

Child star Driscoll gives a stupendous performance that helped him to win a special Oscar for the most outstanding juvenile actor of 1949 at the 1950 Academy Awards, for this and Disney’s So Dear to My Heart (1948). But, after his Disney career, he later fell on bad times and drugs, dying impoverished and ending up in an unmarked pauper’s grave in 1968, aged only 31. He played Johnny in Song of the South (1946), Jim Hawkins in Treasure Island (1950) and voiced Peter Pan (1953).

Also in the cast are Ken Terrell, Tex Swan, Carl Saxe, Anthony Ross, Lee Phelps, Jim Nolan, Eric Mack, Lee Kass, Charles Flynn, Budd Fine, Carl Faulkner, Lloyd Dawson, Richard Benedict and Tom Ahearne.

The Window was shot in 1947 and ready for release in 1948 but shelved by the RKO studio and released in 1949, so when Driscoll got his juvenile Oscar in 1950 he was 13. By 1948 millionaire Howard Hughes had taken over the studio and refused to release it, saying it would not make any money and that Bobby Driscoll wasn’t much of an actor. But in 1949 he was persuaded to release it and it was a critical and financial success, earning many times its production cost of $210,000. And Driscoll’s Juvenile Oscar for his outstanding performance showed he was wrong about that too.

The film’s awards: Edgar Allan Poe Awards: Edgar, Best Motion Picture, Mel Dinelli and Cornell Woolrich; 1950. Academy Honorary Award: Juvenile Oscar, ‘Outstanding Juvenile Actor of 1949’, Bobby Driscoll; 1950.

The story The Boy Cried Murder (reprinted as Fire Escape) was published in 1947 and optioned by RKO. Mel Dinelli adapted it for the screen.

The film was made at RKO’s Pathé Studio in New York, the first movie RKO shot in that city in a long time. Filming started on 10 November 1947, and it was premiered on 17 May 1949 (Los Angeles) and released on 6 August 1949.

It runs 73 minutes.

The film has been remade as The Boy Cried Murder (1966), Cloak & Dagger (1984) and Witness to a Killing.

The cast are Barbara Hale as Mrs Mary Woodry, Arthur Kennedy as Mr Ed Woodry, Paul Stewart as Joe Kellerson, Ruth Roman as Mrs. Jean Kellerson, Bobby Driscoll as Tommy Woodry, Ken Terrell as Man, Tex Swan, Carl Saxe, Anthony Ross, Lee Phelps, Jim Nolan, Eric Mack, Lee Kass, Charles Flynn, Budd Fine, Carl Faulkner, Lloyd Dawson, Richard Benedict and Tom Ahearne.

RIP Barbara Hale (April 18, 1922 – January 26, 2017), best known as legal secretary Della Street on 270 episodes of the Perry Mason TV series, reprising the role in 30 Perry Mason movies for television. Her actor son William Katt said: ‘We’ve all been so lucky to have her for so long. She was gracious and kind and silly and always fun to be with. A wonderful actress and smart business woman.’

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3714

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