Witness to Murder is a crime drama from 1954, starring Barbara Stanwyck, George Sanders, and Gary Merrill. Barbara Stanwyck is Cheryl Draper, who upon looking out her apartment window in the middle of the night, witnesses the man across the street murdering a woman. Cheryl immediately calls the police, but when they arrive at the apartment of Albert Richter (George Sanders), there is no body to be seen and absolutely no evidence of a crime having been committed. In fact, Mr. Richter had been asleep. The police, therefore, conclude that Cheryl had only dreamed she had witnessed a crime.
Cheryl, however, is not convinced it was a dream, so she finds a way to get inside Richter's apartment to investigate. She is sure that the earrings she discovers on his desk belong to the dead woman...and she is equally sure that the tear in the drapes was from the struggle that went on. Mr. Richter, though, is aware that Cheryl had been in his apartment, and he always manages to stay one step ahead of her as far as the police go, even after the body of a woman is discovered in a nearby park.
Eventually, Mr. Richter receives threatening letters, claiming that the writer had seen him commit murder and that the police would soon find him out. Since the letters appear to have been typed on Cheryl's typewriter, it is determined that she, in fact, is their author, despite the fact that she doesn't recollect having done so. Her confusion about things lands her in the mental ward of the county hospital.
Policeman Larry Mathews (Gary Merrill) has begun to fall for Cheryl, and he wants to believe her claims about the murder, so he begins to heavily investigate any possible connection between Mr. Richter and the body found in the park. Cheryl, meanwhile, has been released from the hospital and is more convinced than ever that Richter not only murdered a woman, but that he has been manipulating the whole circumstance to make it look as though she is losing her mind. She is also sure that he fully intends to silence her...by killing her.
And that is where I will leave off. Is your curiosity aroused? Are you wondering whether Cheryl really saw a murder? Or was it just her imagination? Is Richter really someone to be feared? To find out, you will just have to watch this movie for yourself. I'm not sure if it is out on DVD or not, so I'm not sure how easy it will be to track down. I discovered it through Net Flix instant viewing, so if you are a Net Flix member, you can see it that way too.
