The Boy Cried Murder ** (1966, Fraser MacIntosh, Veronica Hurst, Phil Brown) – Classic Movie Review 12,089

The 1966 thriller film The Boy Cried Murder is a remake of the much admired 1949 film The Window, based on Cornell Woolrich’s novelette.

Former child actor turned director George P Breakston’s uninspired 1966 British/ West German/ Yugoslavian thriller film The Boy Cried Murder stars Fraser MacIntosh, Veronica Hurst and Phil Brown. It is a remake of the much admired 1949 film The Window, but this time filmed under its original novel title.

Cornell Woolrich’s novelette The Boy Cried Murder, about the small boy with the big imagination, fond of telling tall tales, who is disbelieved when he sees a murder, is not at its best in this fairly unimaginative version, thanks to rather dull work all round. This time it is set in a Yugoslavia seaside village.

While on holiday in Yugoslavia, a 12-year-old boy called ‘Jonno’ (Fraser MacIntosh) is left by his mother (Veronica Hurst) and stepfather (Phil Brown) when they go on a boat trip without him, and the boy accidentally witnesses a real murder. So the boy cries murder and nobody believes him, except ironically the killer. Now the killer wants to get rid of the boy.

It is a good story and the film looks great in Technicolor, but the direction manages to whip up no particular tension whatever, far from the ‘Suspense Unbearable’ that is advertised. Frazer MacIntosh and Veronica Hurst fit the bill though, with solid performances.

There is already a perfect film of this tale in The Window.

Other versions: Eyewitness (1970) and Cloak & Dagger (1984).

The screenplay is by Robin Estridge.

It was released on 17 May 1966 by Universal Pictures.

It runs 86 minutes.

George P Breakston as child actor appeared in two movies nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: It Happened One Night (1934) and The Grapes of Wrath (1940).

Fraser ‘Fiz’ MacIntosh, born in Adelaide, Australia, on 17 November 1953, was the son of the broadcaster and TV newsreader Alex MacIntosh, who is credited as the Police Sergeant in The Boy Cried Murder. Fraser’s film career was only two films, both directed by George Breakston. In The Soldier (1966), he plays a Yugoslav boy, forced to mature and die too early because of the war. He died in 1988 of a brain tumor, aged 34.

The cast are Frazer MacIntosh as Jonathan ‘Jonno’ Durrant, Veronica Hurst as Clare Durrant, Phil Brown as Tom Durrant, Tim Barrett as Mike, Beba Loncar as Susie, Alex MacIntosh as Police Sergeant, Edward Steel as Colonel Wetherall, Anita Sharp-Bolster as Mrs Wetherall, Sonja Hlebs as Marianne, and Vuka Dundjerovic as Mrs. Bosnic.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,089

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