'Witness in The Dark' (1959) – Wolf Rilla.
This is a terrifically tense, consistently engaging 50s thriller about a kind, fiercely independent blind telephone exchange operator that unexpectedly finds herself the sole witness to an especially callous murder committed in her very own building! A taut, energetically performed, excitingly plotted cat-and-mouse' thriller, rigorously told, featuring a truly wonderfully spirited performance by Patricia Dainton as the uncommonly plucky blind heroine, and the estimable character actor Nigel Green is on splendidly sinister form as the spectacularly cruel, gimlet-eyed thief who monstrously means to do away with our uncommonly courageous heroine!
'Witness in The
Dark' remains an exciting, rewardingly smart, competently made vintage
spine-tingler that demonstratively has much to recommend it to avid murder
mystery fans; perhaps, being especially worthy to those cineastes
with an active interest in lesser known examples of British made,
post-war crime-thrillers. Talented Director Wolf Rilla equips himself
rather well here, maximizing the creepy, unsettling potential of screenwriters Leigh Vance /
John Lemont's quality text, constructing some teeth-rattlingly tense
confrontations, and Rilla elicits some exceptionally fine performances from
acting maestros Green, Dainton and Madge Ryan. And I feel it would be
somewhat remiss of me if I failed to draw attention to the fact that future 'Man About
The House' hunk Richard O'Sullivan delivers a personable performance
as the fresh-faced lad Don Theobold.
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