Anyone else think it's odd that these two movies with similar premises came out in the exact same year? Is it just a random coincidence or is there an actual link between the two.
shareIt's a funny thing, but it seems like ideas float around space and then land in writers heads at the same time. Song lyrics, storylines on soaps, and movies.
You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead.
Just had "Witness to Murder" on TV and asked myself the same question. I thought one or the other was a remake until I saw the same date.
shareSometimes one studio will hear that another has a concept and tries to jump on board with their own version.
shareAnd "Rear Window" isn't the only similarity I noticed. More Hitchcock---not only does she witness the murder from a window across the way, but the murderer tries to kill her by pushing her out the window (Burr/Stewart). You might also notice the "Vertigo"-like chase up the square staircase and the "N by NW" similarity of the final scene with the good guy and bad guy struggling on a "cliff" (edge of high-rise) while the woman clings for life on the edge till her man lifts her to safety. And "Vertigo" and "N by NW" came out several years later, so it's highly possible Hitchcock "stole" a few ideas...
shareThere's at least one more similarity with Hitchcock's oeuvre: the idea of a woman who won't be believed by any of the men in charge about a crime is also in The Lady Vanishes.
To me this film, despite the big names in it, has quite a B quality. Look at the plainness of the opening, for example. It wouldn't surprise me if it was their idea to steal a little of the upcoming film's thunder with a quick knockoff.
Btw. what prompted her to climb that tower anyway? Just run to a dead end? Made no sense, but of course complaining to the detective about the guy over and over again when she knows he's not gonna believe her made no sense either...
... also similarities to "Sorry Wrong Number"...where they don't believe her there either. interesting co-incidence: Gary Merrill & George Sanders were BOTH in All about Eve with Bette Davis...Gary's wife....
ksf-2
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The fact is that Witness to Murder was released April 15, 1954. Rear Window, on the other hand, was released four months later, on August 1, 1954. I think it safe to say that this film was NOT influenced by the Hitchcock production.
But Rear Window is based on a Cornell Woolrich story from 1942, and it received a great deal of pre-release publicity, so it is entirely possible that Witness to Murder was fast-tracked through production to capitalise on the hype surrounding Hitch's film.
Incidentally, Cornell Woolrich also wrote the story for The Window (1949), mentioned above.
I could of Sworn I've seen a made for TV or another movie with two of the plots- 1. When the curtain is ripped and Sanders pretends he rips it in the presence of a witness. 2. Finding the earring by the desk. Was it re-made ?
shareNobody witnesses a murder in Rear Window. And Cornell Woolrich had several obsessive ideas that recur in many of his stories.
Howard Roller
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