akoaytao1234 The Window(1949) is a Film that tells the story of a compulsive liar boy who had lied so many times that even his parent would not believe the things he said.Then one night, it just so happen that he saw a murder and everything turns loose. Overall, the Window is your average Film Noir. Full of twist and turns but always fall into something expected. It might have fallen into a more forgettable territory without the wonderful performance of child actor Bobby Driscoll. He just embodied the role and elevated it into something thrilling and exciting especially during the latter part of the film. [7/10]

riccibilotta-167-829847 Bobby Driscoll was great in this "Boy who cried wolf" type story. He had a need to be the center of attention. A good kid living in the slums of New York who had loving, but frustrated parents. Tommy always told tall stories that eventually got him into trouble. Then when he witnessed a murder, no one believes him. then his life is in danger. Super tense movie, kind of daring for its time. Driscoll was a great child star but was overshadowed by others. He wound up with a tragic and short adult life and was found dead in a building much like the ones he played around in this movie. What a shame.

George Wright The Window is a story set in New York City in 1949, starring Bobby Driscoll, the child in the movie who played Tommy's character superbly. The nine year old Tommy likes to invent stories that land him in trouble with parents and friends. On a sweltering night, he goes outside on a fire escape to get some sleep. It is there that he witnesses a crime. He tries without success to convince his parents about the crime. We see a child who knows he has misbehaved in the past but is determined to set things right. The parents are just as determined to set the boy right.The characters of Tommy and his parents live in a crumbling tenement building that becomes the scene for a dramatic climax. We witness a cast of characters drawn from a neighbourhood at the time--police officers, mailman, reporter, superintendent etc. We see kids playing in settings that would never meet the standard of today's parents. We witness the hardscrabble life of the boy's parents with the father, played by Arthur Kennedy, working graveyard shifts to support his wife and child living in the small apartment. During this event, the wife/mother, played by Barbara Hale, goes off to help her ailing sister. All in all, a little nugget of film noir. We are transported to a way of life many can still relate to with characters and settings from the time.

mgtbltp The Window (1949) Director: Ted Tetzlaff (Notorious (director of photography) Writers: Mel Dinelli (screenplay), Cornell Woolrich (based on his story "The Boy Cried Murder") Cinematography by Robert De Grasse & William O. Steiner. Stars: Bobby Driscoll, Ruth Roman, Barbara Hale, Arthur Kennedy, and Paul Stewart. A unique Noir Thriller. A Family Noir. A Kid's Noir. But not just any kid, the kid who was a denizen of an decaying urban rat warren in a city that was constantly regenerating. A city before the Manhattan el's were torn down, before TV, before air-conditioning, where clothes were dried on clothes lines, where playgrounds were winding back alleys, tar beach roof tops, jungle jim fire escapes, and condemned buildings that became, clubhouses, forts or whatever you may imagine. The real habitats of urban man circa 1948, apartment - street, hall - alley, sidewalk - pavement, steel - earth, inside - outside, light - dark. What really hits home with this film is its realistic telling of the tale from Tommy's POV (Bobby Driscoll). Any viewer with an urban background will find some touchstones to his own childhood or to the childhood stories of his parents. I still remember trying to sleep on hot, humid summer nights, in a second story apartment, where, thanks to a corner bedroom and two open windows any slight cross breeze brought relief. But it also provided the city lullabies of traffic, distant and near, the rattle of the Connecting RR winding off the Hell Gate Bridge, the faint roar of the sunken Grand Central. Nature provided the rustle of a sycamore from a breeze or the patter of rain on it's leaves. My best friend who lived in a bigger apartment house actually did sleep out on the fire escape to cool off with an el down the block. The film begins brilliantly with one of Tommy's fantasies instantly drawing us in to his world. We see a condemned building, we see black window, lying face down, we see Tommy. He awakens looking somewhat in pain, clutching his chest. A child in distress. Crawling forward he grabs a cap gun and we are brought to reality. Tommy is fantasizing, playing/acting out, a "shot" cowboy crawling in a hayloft to the hay-door from where he spots the "gang" playing cards. He shoots and his older buddies ignore him, a new game has replaced the one Tommy was still playing, and a fire truck siren from the street trumps even that. As Tommy makes his way to his street urchin buddies we follow the relatively benign, maze like, cinematic urban landscape that duplicates in reverse a final reckoning that, taking place in the dead of night, turns it all very noir-ish and frightening, murderous silhouettes on window shades, illumination stabbed by slanting shadows. The city, especially in this film, is given equal billing. William O. Steiner (cinematography) a native New Yorker along with two of the three assistant directors, informs the visual compositions with a loving and knowing familiarity. Interiors (studio probably) Art Direction by Italian born Sam Corso, native New Yorker Albert S. D'Agostino and Kansian Walter E. Keller looks flawless. All performances are top notch. Bobby Driscoll was incredibly talented. He's thoroughly believable as Tommy. All his interactions and reactions with his peers, with his parents especially his father Ed (Arthur Kennedy), with his neighbors, and with the police, as he tries to convince them that he's telling the truth ring clear. Barbara Hale and Arthur Kennedy are excellent as Tommy's doubting parents ratcheting up the tension/horror level every time they attempt to reason with or placate Tommy's accusations with the kind of statements most parents faced with the same situation would make. They even make Tommy confront the upstairs neighbors the Kellerson's. Joe Kellerson and Jean Kellerson are one of the most despicable couples in noir. Their grift is for looker Jean (Ruth Roman) to lure single men to their apartment, probably for sex, where she slips them knockout drops, Joe (Paul Stewart) then rolls them for their doe and dumps them in an alley. On a hot & humid night Tommy can't sleep, he wakes his mother Mary Woodry, (Barbara Hale) and asks if he can sleep out on the fire escape where it would be cooler, she says sure but be careful. Laying out in the sweltering evening with his pillow Tommy sees the towels hanging from the Kellerson's clothesline billow in a breeze, a breeze that doesn't reach down enough to give Tommy relief, so like any resourceful kid, Tommy grabs his pillow and climbs up to the Kellerson's landing to fall asleep there. He's awakened both by a shaft of light spilling across his face from the space between the bottom of a pull shade and the window sill, and the sounds of a grift going murderously wrong. Its a beautifully filmed sequence where the action is obscured, partially silhouetted by the shade and vividly focused through the slot. Though I've never read the Cornell Woolrich short story I have read that the story is even gorier. Lots of great sequences, watch for the police station cat. The original music score by Roy Webb even includes a leitmotif for Tommy. Great New York Noir 10/10