When television was in it's infancy the movie studios viewed it as a threat. movie theatre attendance dropped off as people stayed home to watch this new fangled invention. Then someone had the brilliant idea to sell the rights for the networks to broadcast movies. Soon entire back catalogs were being licensed and the studios discovered that television was a whole new revenue stream.
Local networks used movies as cheap and easy programming. before cable TV you could count on local TV to have multiple movie showings a day. They might reserve early mornings fro sitcom repeats and prime time for some original programming, but the rest of the time it was movies, movies and more movies.
In New York City WOR Channel 9 dubbed their movie programming "The Million Dollar Movie" and each film opened with the theme from Gone With The Wind and shots of NYC landmarks. For years I knew the GWTW theme as The Million Dollar Movie theme.
The Million Dollar Movie would sometimes program in blocks repeating the same film for five days in a row. I don't really understand this strategy. If an adult watched a movie on Monday then they would lose that viewer Tuesday through Friday. But for a kid, if it was a good movie, you watched it again and again.
One of my earliest memories is watching the movie The Window for five nights in a row.
The window is a excellent "B" suspense thriller with film noir overtones. The movie was released by RKO Pictures in 1949. It was produced by Dore Schary, who would go on to run MGM Studios. It was directed by Ted Tetzlaff who learned his trade as a cinematographer for Alfred Hitchcock. The screenplay came from a story by Cornell Woolrich (Rear Window). Woolrich was responsible for more film noir stories than any other crime fiction writer.
The movie stars Barbara hale, Arthur Kennedy, Paul Stewart and, on loan from Disney, child actor Bobby Driscoll.
The movie rests on Driscoll's small shoulders. He so convincingly plays a boy who is terrified for his own life without over acting in the slightest.
The movie is based on the boy who cried wolf story. Young Tommy tells tall tales to get attention. This sometimes causes trouble for him and his parents. he tells his friends he and his parents are moving out west to a big ranch and that night the landlord is at the door trying to rent the apartment.
Tommy's parents are frustrated with his made up stories and warn him there will be real punishment if he tells more. Later that night, while sleeping on the fire escape because of the sweltering heat he glimpses a murder through the cracked shade of the upstairs neighbors window. Unfortunately no one, including his parents and the police will believe him, no one except the murderer who is now planning on killing Tommy and his parents.
At 73 minutes the film is a taut, suspensful thriller. The film perfectly captures the experience of a boy growing up in the slums of 1940's new York City. The film captures the dark overtones of the failure of the American dream for many in the post war years.
Director Tetzlaff manipulates the audience carefully so we fully identify with Tommy and his plight and even come to see his parents as bad because they refuse to believe him, even as he becomes more and more frightened. The film induces both excitement and anxiety as Tommy tries to escape from his neighbor, intent on murdering him.
Movies like The Window prove that low budget does not mean low production values. I have not seen this movie in about 44 years, but watching it now I realized how much of an impression it had made on me when i was 8 years old. I thought it was great then and it is still pretty good now.
If you love suspense thrillers or good classic film check out The Window.
At The Movie House rating *** stars
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