A standard British noir film…
As far as I can remember, this is my first time watching one directed by Muriel Box, & produced by her husband Sydnie Box. The film’s female characters were more prominently featured than in a lot of the noirs, surely this was intentional.

I loved the location street scenes & apartment furnishings in the beginning of the film. Also a few of the hospital scenes seemed like they were on location too, or it was just really good set design. 

I enjoyed watching this film. There were parts that were unintentionally humorous, as can sometimes be the case with movies from the 1950’s (& imo there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that).

Loved the women in this – from Muriel Pavlow as a forthright and independent wife to the nurses working through a long night shift, characterised with colour and personality (Belinda Lee!); to the old lady in the ward dismissed as a kook; to the widow wanting to be told the straightforward truth about what happened to her husband; to the power of a bossy, observant little girl to affect the narrative – a lively 'slice of life' cast realised by director, Muriel Box, and writer, Janet Green.

Strongly recommend reading sakana's in-depth review here!

Written and directed by women, Eyewitness is a quick-paced English thriller that starts off strong with a movie theater robbery and devolves into a medical cat-and-mouse game. The hospital setting was cool at first but the novelty wears off because the criminal is actually so stupid?? 😭 HOWEVER, there is a nice undercurrent throughout that shows a sensitivity towards the female characters and little glimpses into their lives. Definitely not enough substantial social commentary to carry the tired thriller, but appreciated just the same!

"I didn't want to kill anyone... I only wanted to go to New Zealand." Haven't we all been there?

Longest 82 minutes of my life. 

I wanted to like this. I really did. But it was just so boring. 

I though Lucy would be more of an interesting character but she was unconscious for the whole movie!!!!!!

None of the characters in the hospital were that interesting and the scenes got so repetitive after a while. Instead of building tension, it destroyed what little momentum the film had.

Very very disappointed.

I enjoyed Muriel Pavlow in the opening sequences so much so it was a real bummer that she gets sidelined in the hospital for the rest of the movie.
Noirvember #17

The heroine shows up, reads her flaky husband the riot act, makes us love her, and then unfortunately spends the rest of the movie confined to a hospital bed in a concussion-induced fugue state. Which is too bad because she's a real pisser and I think she could have sorted this whole mess out pretty handily! This is another female-directed movie with more interesting texture than I usually expect out of a little mid-budget thriller, particularly the hearing-impaired safecracker and the ornery old lady at the hospital! Also I cheered when Running Nurse finally got to run :D

"I didn't want to kill anyone. I just wanted to go to New Zealand. "

love a dumbass criminal who thinks he's a genius. sort of repetitive, you watch this guy try and fail to break into a hospital room with different tom and jerry type schemes over and over and it's comical but then he finally gets in and you remember oh wait he wants to kill this woman and all the threat comes back

A tense and unusual British thriller in which Muriel Pavlow sees a murder at her local cinema just before being struck by a bus - while she recovers in hospital the murderer (Donald Sinden, cast against type and very good indeed) tries multiple times to kill her.

Set aside of the main plot there are some good character bits from Nigel Stock as Sinden's deaf sidekick, Belinda Lee's pretty nurse, Nicholas Parsons's urbane and slightly sexist doctor, Ada Reeve's grumbling elderly patient, Lionel Jeffries's spivvy drinker, and Michael Craig as Pavlow's worried husband.

With some nice twists and turns, an excellent screenplay from Janet Green with direction from Muriel Box, and a nice bit of location filming in Southall, this keeps things moving nicely, and feels completely rational in its everyday minutiae as we watch Sinden's cold killer slowly lapse into madness.