The moral of Aesop's fable about the boy who cried "wolf" is that no-one believes liars and this is exactly what happens in "The Window" which was based on Cornell Woolrich's short story "The Boy Who Cried Murder". Murder, kidnap and the plight of a child who finds himself in mortal danger are all strong elements of this tense and realistic tale which illustrates very powerfully that, in movie-making, a low budget doesn't necessarily mean a low quality end-product.
Nine-year-old Tommy Woodry (Bobby Driscoll) lives with his parents in a tenement building in New York City's Lower East Side and his habit of telling tall stories drives them to despair because nothing they can do or say seems to make any difference in terms of getting him to change his behaviour. On one occasion, after Tommy had told his friends that his family were moving to Texas, their landlord had called by to show prospective tenants around and Tommy's frustrated father Ed (Arthur Kennedy) had been left to explain that there wasn't any truth in what the landlord had heard.
One hot summer night, when Tommy finds it impossible to get to sleep, his mother Mary (Barbara Hale) gives him permission to sleep out on the fire escape and so, after taking his pillow up to the next level above his bedroom window, he settles down to rest. A little later, he wakes up and through the window adjacent to where he'd slept, sees his upstairs neighbours stealing money from the pocket of a drunken seaman and then stabbing him to death with a pair of scissors. When he tells his mother what he'd seen, she doesn't believe him and suggests that he'd had a nightmare. When Tommy plucks up courage to report the matter to the police, they too treat what he says with great scepticism.
When Tommy's mother becomes aware that he'd reported the matter to the police, she's so incensed that she compels him to apologise to their neighbours for the terrible things he'd said about them and it's only then that they realize that there was a witness to their crime and Tommy becomes terrified because he knows he's in grave danger. From that point on, Joe (Paul Stewart) and Jean (Ruth Roman) Kellerson, pursue Tommy relentlessly with a view to permanently eliminating the threat that he poses to their futures.
It's interesting to see, in this movie, how differently children were treated in the late-1940s because, although Tommy had kind parents, they were relaxed about the dangerous locations he played in, considered it quite acceptable to leave him on his own in their apartment overnight and also had no qualms about locking him up in his room. The police also disbelieve him twice and on the occasion when he seeks help from a street cop because he's trapped in the back of a taxi with the Kellersons, the officer tells him "a good lickin' never hurt anybody boy, my old man used to give me enough of them when I was a kid". Similarly, it's surprising to see that, during the same period , it was not considered particularly shocking to show a man (with his wife's complicity) casually knocking a child unconscious, simply because he was being a bit difficult.
"The Window" (which provided Cornell Woolrich with the inspiration for "Rear Window") is well written and ends with an exciting, dangerous and very well-directed chase through an abandoned building. The cinematography is also very effective in emphasising the claustrophobic nature of many of the locations and the acting is excellent throughout. Arthur Kennedy's portrayal of Tommy's father is remarkably subtle and strong and Bobby Driscoll (in a role for which he received a special Oscar) is simply amazing because he's just so natural, expressive and believable. It's no exaggeration to say that his must be one of the greatest-ever screen performances by any child actor.
Nine-year-old Tommy Woodry (Bobby Driscoll) lives with his parents in a tenement building in New York City's Lower East Side and his habit of telling tall stories drives them to despair because nothing they can do or say seems to make any difference in terms of getting him to change his behaviour. On one occasion, after Tommy had told his friends that his family were moving to Texas, their landlord had called by to show prospective tenants around and Tommy's frustrated father Ed (Arthur Kennedy) had been left to explain that there wasn't any truth in what the landlord had heard.
One hot summer night, when Tommy finds it impossible to get to sleep, his mother Mary (Barbara Hale) gives him permission to sleep out on the fire escape and so, after taking his pillow up to the next level above his bedroom window, he settles down to rest. A little later, he wakes up and through the window adjacent to where he'd slept, sees his upstairs neighbours stealing money from the pocket of a drunken seaman and then stabbing him to death with a pair of scissors. When he tells his mother what he'd seen, she doesn't believe him and suggests that he'd had a nightmare. When Tommy plucks up courage to report the matter to the police, they too treat what he says with great scepticism.
When Tommy's mother becomes aware that he'd reported the matter to the police, she's so incensed that she compels him to apologise to their neighbours for the terrible things he'd said about them and it's only then that they realize that there was a witness to their crime and Tommy becomes terrified because he knows he's in grave danger. From that point on, Joe (Paul Stewart) and Jean (Ruth Roman) Kellerson, pursue Tommy relentlessly with a view to permanently eliminating the threat that he poses to their futures.
It's interesting to see, in this movie, how differently children were treated in the late-1940s because, although Tommy had kind parents, they were relaxed about the dangerous locations he played in, considered it quite acceptable to leave him on his own in their apartment overnight and also had no qualms about locking him up in his room. The police also disbelieve him twice and on the occasion when he seeks help from a street cop because he's trapped in the back of a taxi with the Kellersons, the officer tells him "a good lickin' never hurt anybody boy, my old man used to give me enough of them when I was a kid". Similarly, it's surprising to see that, during the same period , it was not considered particularly shocking to show a man (with his wife's complicity) casually knocking a child unconscious, simply because he was being a bit difficult.
"The Window" (which provided Cornell Woolrich with the inspiration for "Rear Window") is well written and ends with an exciting, dangerous and very well-directed chase through an abandoned building. The cinematography is also very effective in emphasising the claustrophobic nature of many of the locations and the acting is excellent throughout. Arthur Kennedy's portrayal of Tommy's father is remarkably subtle and strong and Bobby Driscoll (in a role for which he received a special Oscar) is simply amazing because he's just so natural, expressive and believable. It's no exaggeration to say that his must be one of the greatest-ever screen performances by any child actor.