Witness in the Dark (1959)

Patricia Dainton, a very dependable B actress, gives a tremendous performance as a young independent blind woman who finds herself caught up in this very thought provoking Wolf Rilla directed programmer. She plays Jane Pringle, a switchboard operator who also coaches a young lad in Braille after work and it is this small scene that shows the film tries hard to give some dimension to a story that has been told often before. She is stoical about her blindness but Dan played by a young Richard O'Sullivan) is angry - he dreamed of joining the Airforce but now finds it difficult to go on. Her calm matter of factness and caring brings him around to a better frame of mind.As well as all this, she also keeps old Mrs. Temple company but doesn't approve of her conversations with landlady Mrs. Finch, a compulsive gossip who has already broadcast down at the local pub that Mrs. Temple, for all her meagre living, is sitting on a treasure trove of riches. When the elderly lady is murdered, Jane comes face to face with the killer (a very imposing Nigel Green) and she also meets Inspector Coates (Conrad Phillips, a B stalwart who found fame as TV's "William Tell"), who recognises in her intelligence and sense. The twist in the tale is the brooch - the killer doesn't find it at first but when it is willed to Jane and the landlady again stupidly tells whoever will listen about Jane's good fortune, the stage is set up for a thrilling cat and mouse finale!!Even though the film (at 62 minutes) was a second feature, in 1961 it was aired on American TV as part of the Kraft Mystery Theatre and won an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Television episode.Highly Recommended.

It's not the length of the film but how effective it is to the viewer."Witness in the Dark" is no exception and is a classic Briish cast "B" feature such as one saw in the 1950s along with Pathe News, a Cartoon and of course the big feature film.I am 70 years old and can well remember going to the cinema then to see the aforementioned full programme.Nigel Green who played "The Intruder" in this film, I remember playing a patient recovering from a broken arm in the 1956 film "Reach for the Sky" who accompanied Douglas Bader (Kenneth More) to a cafeteria with another recovering R.A.F. pilot (Jack Watling) in a 20s Bentley.The subject film is a cracking thriller, well written, well cast and well directed which held my attention.There is a hint at the end that the police inspector may have had amatory intentions on Patricia Dainton's character.We want her to have a happy life after losing her fiancé and her sight in a car accident in France 5 years before.A Good production with minimal cost, I rated it 7/10.

This is a neat little thriller which stars Conrad Phillips who published his biography on the net.It features Patricia Dainton as a blind girl who passes the killer on the stairs but is of course unable to recognise him.Nigel Green is the killer,his identity is not cloaked.Green is very effective in this role.He had a reasonable career but sadly he committed suicide at an early age.The film dwells on the predicament of the blind girl.She is used as bait to trap the killer when he is drawn to visit her in the bogus guise of a newspaper photographer.Films such as this supported the big spectacular from Hollywood,however if truth be told they were often better than the film's they supported.

I enjoyed this little UK thriller, a very short one - 62mn. Not an action packed, shot only indoors, two or three sets, perhaps four.No many characters, but very effective.The tale of a blind girl who, by accident, crosses the path of a thief turned killer, who have just murdered the upper flat neighbour - and friend - of the same blind girl.Of course, there is a police investigation. Cops searching traces of the killer, and asking for help of the blind girl.i won't say that's a fascinating movie but, unlikely many others of this kind, it's not boring at all. We expect a love affair between the detective in charge of the case and the blind girl; but it seems that we an still wait for it...I'll put it between Blink and Blind Terror, and perhaps Jennifer Eight. But don't remember if this latest film is about a blind girl...SorryWolf Rilla directed Village of the Damned just after this one. And some years later, he made a remake of Asphalt Jungle: "Cairo".