The Window

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Poe L Feb 22, 2019 Possibly my favorite noir film. This film has an interesting topic and is very easy to follow. Many other film noirs seem to have so much happening that it's easy to get lost in the plot. The Window is able to supply a great deal of suspense in only 73 minutes. I think part of this comes from the familiarity of the story. Everyone knows about the boy who cried wolf-- except now it has a scarier social context. See more

Harry W Feb 21, 2019 For a low budget RKO release, this chiller shows us the New York tenement building of 1949 and the dire poorness of its inhabitants. The family is too middle-class for this film, but the film is spellbinding regardless. Your eyes always follow young Bobby Driscoll as he runs through New York and away from the murderers above him. Arthur Kennedy is exceptionally good as the father, although most uneducated, poor New York fathers of the time would have had less patience with their sons and would have turned immediately to physical punishment. Barbara Hale, who was a few years away from being known in every American household, is almost unrecognizable here but does a fine job as the mother. The Kellersons present themselves as equally scary as the protaganists who live above. What seems to have changed a lot is the police and the police stations. Portrayed as empty and sleepy and populated by detectives who don't have any education in police science (was there such a thing in 1949?) they contrast sharply with the sleek combat mission police garrisons of today. This film is a gem for its stark beauty, simple plot, and sterling acting. See more

Poe S Nov 2, 2018 Thrilling,original and exciting.Truly a classic.

Harry S May 10, 2018 A film noir to scare kids, based on "The Boy who Cried Wolf" (attributed to Aesop). Bobby Driscoll (star of Disney's Song of the South, 1946, and Treasure Island, 1950) is a kid who tells tall tales but then witnesses a murder - and no one will believe him. Possibly an inspiration for Rear Window (1954) since Driscoll, aged 9 or 10, sees the murder while voyeuristically spying on the neighbours (from his NYC fire escape). And, as in the later film, they eventually come to get him. Despite the presence of the earnest child actor (who later came to a bad end), director Ted Tetzlaff doesn't pull any punches (nor does Paul Stewart playing the menacing neighbour, who socks Bobby in the back of a cab). There is some real tension here and you do believe that Driscoll could get killed. Quite the surprise, since the rest of the ensemble, parents Arthur Kennedy and Barbara Hale and some assorted cops, play this like a family drama. Naturally, in the end, the kid learns his lesson. See more

Anakin L Oct 29, 2017 Fun and suspenseful movie about a boy who witnesses a murder, but his parents don't believe him, leaving him vulnerable to the murderers, who happen to live upstairs! It's all pretty great, until the disappointing pat ending which makes everything rosy again. See more

Harry L Jun 24, 2017 I seen this movie when I was a kid and never lied to my parents again and they never said what the father did for a living as he was always hardly working must have been a union government job See more

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The Window

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