Can you do Film Noir with a child lead? The Window goes out of its way to try and I think it succeeds admirably. Prefiguring Rear Window but harking back to The Boy Who Cried Wolf, 9-year-old Tommy (Bobby Driscoll) sees a murder in the upstairs apartment while lurking on the fire escape. Only, no one will believe him because he's told one too many tall tales to get attention. Well, if it's attention you want, Tommy, it's attention you'll get. From the murderers! So he have our flawed protagonist. We have our dark crime. We have some great black and white cinematography. And from the point where the bad guys are coming after him, we have a lot of suspense, leading to an edge-of-your seat climax filled with tension, action, and surprises. Yeah, sure, the way they put a button on the end of it is a little corny - were they really marketing this to kids that it seemed necessary? - but that's forgivable after all the genuine thrills they gave us. Fun stuff.
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FilmWalrus
Replacing MMDan's link:https://archive.org/details/the-window-1949
Ebbywebby
I don't have much love for '40s Hollywood. And this film was much better than it had any right to be.Siskoid
Can you do Film Noir with a child lead? The Window goes out of its way to try and I think it succeeds admirably. Prefiguring Rear Window but harking back to The Boy Who Cried Wolf, 9-year-old Tommy (Bobby Driscoll) sees a murder in the upstairs apartment while lurking on the fire escape. Only, no one will believe him because he's told one too many tall tales to get attention. Well, if it's attention you want, Tommy, it's attention you'll get. From the murderers! So he have our flawed protagonist. We have our dark crime. We have some great black and white cinematography. And from the point where the bad guys are coming after him, we have a lot of suspense, leading to an edge-of-your seat climax filled with tension, action, and surprises. Yeah, sure, the way they put a button on the end of it is a little corny - were they really marketing this to kids that it seemed necessary? - but that's forgivable after all the genuine thrills they gave us. Fun stuff.Camille Deadpan
An excellent one, although I find the kid annoying.ClassicLady
Great suspense!SteamboatWillie
Great picture, great performanceMikeKuypers
One of my absolute favorites.MrE2Me
Solid suspense story that prefigures Rear Window by 5 years.MMDan
https://archive.org/details/TheWindow1949BarbaraHaleENG