- From its basic plot to the fact that it was also adapted from a story by Cornell Woolrich, Ted Tetzlaff's The Window has much in common with Rear Window. (Tetzlaff even worked with Hitchcock as the cinematographer for Notorious, if you're looking for further overlap.) The fundamental difference, of course, is that the voyeur looking through the window in this film is a young boy named Tommy (Bobby Driscoll), who witnesses his upstairs neighbors, the Kellersons (Paul Stewart and Ruth Roman), murdering a man. Tommy's unconcerned parents (Barbara Hale and Arthur Kennedy) assume that his story is another in a long line of tall tales, and the police are equally quick to dismiss Tommy's complaint. Meanwhile, the Kellersons wonder what they should do with the only living witness to their crime.
- Although the entire affair is pretty predictable -- the opening quote is from The Boy Who Cried Wolf, after all -- The Window does have a few memorable moments. Its best scene is certainly the one in which Tommy watches the murder by peering in beneath the blinds and seeing the pair of scissors fall to the ground shortly before the body. The final scene in the abandoned warehouse is also very striking, as parts of the dilapidated building collapse around Tommy and the Kellersons. Otherwise, the film mostly serves to remind modern audiences that life was pretty rough for kids in the 1940s. Tommy gets just about as many threats from his parents as he does from the murderers, and cab drivers and the police are more than happy to look the other way at what would today be considered child abuse. So if you want to see the kid who voiced Peter Pan get knocked around until he resorts to killing somebody, this may be the film for you!
