Barbara Stanwyck witnesses a murder and the culprit, played by the usually sinister George Sanders, is trying to drive her insane after this event. Gary Merrill is the detective who tries to sort this all out while he is falling for Cheryl (Barbara).

The flaw here is in the writing. Sanders, as Mr. Richter, should have immediately been under much more suspicion as he was a former Nazi who came into this country legally. Who can believe that one? In addition, he is an author whose books justify the deaths of certain people. Sounds horribly familiar to me.

Stanwyck gives her usually good performance as a tormented woman who is driven mad by Richter.

The roof scene finale is exciting but comes too late following big errors in the movie writing.

The premise for "Witness to Murder" is very good but the film suffers from one serious problem--the writing. In the movie, the police almost immediately assume that a person who reported a murder is either wrong or crazy. Maybe I am a bit naive, but I really don't believe that the police would be so fast to do this and would take a reported murder A LOT more seriously. However, in the world of this film, they very quickly assume this is the case...too quickly to be realistic. Later, other such stupid assumptions sink the film.

"Witness to Murder" begins, not surprisingly, with Barbara Stanwyck looking out her apartment window and seeing a woman being killed in an apartment across from hers. She does what any person would do--contacts the police. And, almost immediately they assume she is wrong! Later in the film one of the cops (Gary Merrill) starts to wonder and actually begins to do his job! But, the smooth killer contacts the idiot police Captain and convinces him that he's being harassed by Stanwyck--and they lock her in the loony bin! I was frustrated by the film--it just assumed something that the film simply didn't establish. Had they had Stanwyck ACT crazy or the police investigated thoroughly THEN they assumed she was wrong it COULD have worked well.

Fortunately, the film did get better...for a while. Once Stanwyck was released from the hospital, Sanders actually torments her--telling her that he DID kill the lady but that now no one would believe her! This was great--and I really wanted to see more of this. But, it then gets stupid again when Sanders is in her apartment late in the film and a neighbors SEE this and hears Stanwyck cry for help, they immediately assume she's crazy--even though they have no idea about the investigation and police opinions about Stanwyck's sanity. If a neighbor cried out for help, I sure as heck would have done SOMETHING!!! The bottom line is that the acting is fine--the writing was not. However, it's is a VERY frustrating movie. It could have been good and had a good cast...but ultimately was crap due to wretched writing...just wretched.

Perhaps Barbara Stanwyck was looking to score another Oscar with Witness To Murder. Her fourth and final nomination was with Sorry Wrong Number. In that film she overhears a murder plot.

In this one she sees neighbor George Sanders commit a strangulation on some woman. But the police show up and no body and no signs of struggle. Still Stanwyck persists and detectives Gary Merrill and Jesse White do their best..

We learn too early that Sanders did the deed which robs us of suspense. Still Sanders is at his caddiest and that's always a treat.

The best scenes are Stanwyck in a mental ward and she's in with a lot of those you would have seen in the Snake Pit. Wonderful scene allowing all the players including Stanwyck to overact and stay in character.

Timing is everything and Witness To Murder was released first so it was no copycat. But Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window with the same premise and all those Hitch touches came out far superior and this film was forgotten.

Stanwyck and the cast do a good job though and Witness To Murder should not be forgotten.