The Window (1949)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Window (1949) – T. Tetzlaff

A film noir to scare kids, based on “The Boy who Cried Wolf” (attributed to Aesop).  Bobby Driscoll (star of Disney’s Song of the South, 1946, and Treasure Island, 1950) is a kid who tells tall tales but then witnesses a murder – and no one will believe him.  Possibly an inspiration for Rear Window (1954) since Driscoll, aged 9 or 10, sees the murder while voyeuristically spying on the neighbours (from his NYC fire escape).  And, as in the later film, they eventually come to get him.  Despite the presence of the earnest child actor (who later came to a bad end), director Ted Tetzlaff doesn’t pull any punches (nor does Paul Stewart playing the menacing neighbour, who socks Bobby in the back of a cab).  There is some real tension here and you do believe that Driscoll could get killed.  Quite the surprise, since the rest of the ensemble, parents Arthur Kennedy and Barbara Hale and some assorted cops, play this like a family drama.  Naturally, in the end, the kid learns his lesson.