Witness to Murder

This film noir stars Barbara Stanwyck as Cheryl Draper, who witnesses a murder through her bedroom window and can't get anyone to believe her, and George Sanders as the killer, Albert Richter, a former Nazi and Nietzsche scholar. Richter manipulates events so thoroughly that Cheryl herself gets committed to a psychiatric hospital, while police detective Lawrence Mathews, who initially doubts her, gradually falls for her instead. The film's most notable feature is that it shares an almost identical premise with Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, released the same year: a witness to murder through a window, unable to convince anyone. Witness to Murder actually opened about a month before Rear Window, and screenwriter Chester Erskine reportedly designed it to compete directly with the film Hitchcock was making at Paramount at the time. History nonetheless handed Rear Window the box office and the lasting reputation, leaving this film remembered mainly for John Alton's shadowy cinematography. Who it's for: Anyone curious about classic noir structure and the rare case of two studios racing out near identical premises the same year. Who it's not for: Not for mystery seekers, since the killer's identity is known from the start and the film runs as a howcatchem.