Posted by ElliotLavine
on 10/28/2009, 10:53 am
75.18.207.22 | Message modified by user ElliotLavine 10/28/2009, 12:26 pm
“The Witness”
Written by Monroe Manning and John Kohn
Directed by Bernard Girard
Director of Photography: Lucien Andriot
Cast:
Edwin Max (Vic Talley)
Vera Marshe (Ann Weber)
Lee Marvin (Sgt. Krone)
William Schallert (Watchman)
Original Airdate: May 16, 1952
A full five years before exploding onto the small screen as Lt. Frank Ballinger in the trend-setting crime series M-SQUAD, Lee Marvin made his way into unsuspecting living rooms in the supporting role of a tough big city cop in this fine episode from the excellent and seldom discussed anthology series REBOUND. This series was also known as COUNTERPOINT in various syndicated incarnations. It ran for two seasons, beginning in 1952. Produced in Hollywood by Bing Crosby Enterprises, it showcased intriguing stories of suspense, usually punctuated by an O. Henry-style surprise ending.
This chillingly somber drama finds a pair of petty crooks, sad-faced Vic Talley (Edwin Max) and his blowsy, world-weary accomplice Ann Weber (Vera Marshe) at the bottom rung of the criminal ladder. Fed up with their lack of success they’ve decided to lam out of town in hopes of greener pastures elsewhere. In order to fuel their departure, they’ve planned a final score that should net them enough dough to make it at least to Detroit: Ann has cased a skid row jewelry shop that should provide them with just what they need. Vic heads over on his own, confident that everything will come off without a hitch. Making his way downtown he sneaks inside the shop through the back alley. He slugs the watchman and makes off with a fistful of diamonds. Out in the alley he stops cold in his tracks—a man in a clown suit across the way at the back entrance of the neighboring burlesque joint stares back at him. Rattled, Vic nervously hustles away and hightails it back to his dreary hotel room where Ann anxiously awaits his return. Satisfied with the score but unnerved by the fact that there’s a witness to the heist, Vic quickly reasons that the clown needs to be eliminated. After all, Vic casually reminds Ann, he’s already got a record and another bust means a lengthy stay in the can. He’s not about to risk it. He whisks Ann off to the burlesque joint with instructions to get the dope on the clown and find out if the cops are wise to the heist yet.
By now the watchman at the jewelry store (William Schallert) has regained consciousness and calls the cops.
Ann arrives at the alley and all seems quiet. She wanders into the seedy theater and inquires after the clown. She’s told that his name is Tim Connors and he changes in dressing room three. If she wants to hang around she’s welcome to; the afternoon show wraps up at 5:15. Armed with this info, she returns to Vic’s hotel room. He now knows what he needs to do.
The cops, now on the scene and led by Sgt. Krone (Lee Marvin) question the watchman. He assigns one of his men to investigate the other businesses off the alley in the event that someone spotted anything suspicious. A uniformed cop heads over to the burlesque joint.
Meanwhile Vic heads back downtown to exact his mission of malice. Skulking around backstage he wends his way to dressing room three where the clown is about to slip out of his costume. Vic draws his gun and fires three times point blank. The shots draw the attention of everyone in the theater, including the beat cop who snakes his way past the startled dancers. The cop chases Vic out into the alley and when the fleeing killer won’t stop he fires. Vic staggers and drops to the ground, dead. Sgt. Krone arrives and after digging through Vic’s wallet discovers the address of his hotel. Krone and another cop knock on Vic’s hotel door and are greeted by Ann. There in an open suitcase are the stolen diamonds. They lead Ann out of the room and bring her back to the theater. She denies her involvement but it’s clear that her protestations are in vain. They bring her into dressing room three where Tim Connors, the murdered clown still lies sprawled on the floor, still clad in his costume. Krone rolls his body over only to reveal that Connors’ costume was a gimmick, with the mask fastened to the back of his head! Ann, gazing down at the corpse muses silently to herself, “He had his back to him the whole time. He never even seen Vic.”
This is a remarkably dark tele-film with its greatest debt being to the hardboiled poverty row noir features emanating from such low budget outfits as Monogram, Lippert and PRC. With its highly effective use of location exteriors—including actual denizens of skid row life—and squalidly drab interiors, “The Witness” benefits from the surface reality that propels its pungent sense of time and place in ways that more “respectable” films can only hope to achieve. The naturalistic low-key performances of Edwin Max and Verna Marshe help underscore the sad truth behind their characters’ sordid and desperate lives. Max, as many hard-core noir fans may already know, had a thick resume´ of character and bit roles in feature noirs, including THE ARNELO AFFAIR (47), THE UNDERCOVER MAN (49), THE SET-UP (49), FOLLOW ME QUIETLY (49), JOHNNY STOOL PIGEON (49), THIEVES’ HIGHWAY (49), BORDER INCIDENT (49), SIDE STREET (50) and THE ENFORCER (51). Miss Marshe could be seen on a fairly regular basis all through the 50s and 60s on television episodes of PERRY MASON, THE LINE-UP and M-SQUAD. The director, Bernard Girard had an incredible career in television, helming episodes of such classic 50s and 60s programs as CLIMAX, PLAYHOUSE 90, SUSPICION, M-SQUAD, JOHNNY STACCATO, CHECKMATE, ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS and THE TWILIGHT ZONE. His most notable feature film was DEAD HEAT ON A MERRY-GO-ROUND (66). Cinematographer Lucien Andriot’s career dates back to the very dawn of cinema, first in his native France and then eventually in Hollywood where he photographed countless feature films, chief among them BIRD OF PARADISE (32), HALLELUJAH I’M A BUM (33), THE GAY DESPERADO (36), CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OPERA (36), MR. MOTO’S GAMBLE (38), EVERYTHING HAPPENS AT NIGHT (39), JUST OFF BROADWAY (42), THE HAIRY APE (44), THE SOUTHERNER (45), AND THEN THERE WERE NONE (45), THE STRANGE WOMAN (46), THE CORPSE CAME C.O.D. (47) and BORDERLINE (50).
“The Witness” is a modest, yet powerful example of the hidden wealth to be found in the myriad of obscure half-hour episodes of what we now call TV Noir. This particular program is included on a newly released DVD called GOLDEN AGE NOIR: Seven Stunning Stories From The Top Anthology Series of the 1950s. I strongly urge one and all to find it and buy it.
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