Four Star Playhouse The Witness (1952–1956) watch online HD

The Witness - 1953. This is an episode from the 130 episode run of, FOUR STAR PLAYHOUSE. The series ran from 1952 to 1956.

Dick Powell is a slick lawyer whose client, Charles Bronson, is up on murder and robbery charges. He denies the charges.

There had been a payroll robbery where a guard was killed. Bronson had been grabbed up by the law when he deposited some of the cash in his bank. The serial numbers matched ones from the robbery.

Bronson claims that the cash was given to him be a woman. The police look for this woman but find no one matching Bronson's description. Powell hires several P.I types to keep looking while he delays the court case. The woman, Marion Carr, is found and convinced to give evidence for Bronson.

Once in court, Powell runs circles around the D.A. James Millican, and soon has the jury eating out of his hand. The real gunman and robber, Strother Martin, is exposed, and Bronson is set free.

A time-waster that is OK, but nothing special.

Of note though, is the director, Robert Aldrich. His future film work would include, THE BIG KNIFE, KISS ME DEADLY, VERA CRUZ, ATTACK, HUSH...HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE, WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE, THE DIRTY DOZEN, THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX, THE LONGEST YARD, EMPEROR OF THE NORTH POLE and THE CHOIRBOYS.

The d of p was long time film noir lenseman, George Diskant. His work included, RIFFRAFF, THEY LIVE BY NIGHT, PORT OF NEW YORK, BETWEEN MIDNIGHT AND DAWN, ON DANGEROUS GROUND, THE NARROW MARGIN, BEWARE MY LOVELY and THE RACKET. (b/w)

Amusing nostalgia and interesting talent, but not much else is going on here. I enjoyed seeing a young Charles Bronson, but Dick Powell was not up to his usual performance. He was much better in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). He probably was just going through the motions on this one. After all, this was just television, but Powell was pretty big in TV. I still remember the Dick Powell Show. As an Aldrich TV directorial effort, there were some interesting shots, but I would really like to see some of his China Smith work. I wonder if it is available anywhere? Of course, the appearance of Strother Martin was a pleasant surprise. You can see a Film Noir influence in the some of the cinematography, but not the story. Overall worth a watch, but the plot is weaker than your average Perry Mason.

One of the four stars in the title of the program, Dick Powell, is the lead in "The Witness" and it's quite well done, though rushed. Donegan is in a fix. He believes his client's story, though no one else seems to believe that he has a good alibi and that he wasn't involved in a robbery that resulted in someone's death. The problem is that detectives (both cops and private detectives) cannot find the lady and the trial has been postponed again and again. Eventually, the judge is going to force the case to proceed--and without the witness, the client (Charlie Buchinsky) will possibly be sent to death row. So, Donegan stalls and stalls and hopes for some sort of miracle. Eventually, he figures out who this mystery lady might be--and for the sake of the client, Donegan's hunch better be right.

Two reasons to see this one is because of the supporting characters. Charlie Buchinsky is Charles Bronson--and for years he went by the name 'Buchinsky'. I think changing it to Bronson was probably a good idea! Additionally, you get to see a young Strother Martin in the show.

Another important reason to see it is that the show is a quality production. It's not surprising that Dick Powell was good here--he was a heck of an actor and showed this after shedding his 1930s 'pretty boy' image. The writing is also quite nice. All this just furthers my respect for this great old show--and fortunately many episodes are available for free download at archive.org.

I don't recall Dick Powell ever playing a lawyer in his big screen career and every actor loves a courtroom drama. So when he started his small screen producing career Powell must have spotted a teleplay about a defense lawyer and took this one for himself.

In The Witness Powell plays a breezy and supremely confident defense attorney who has an idiot for a client in Charles Bronson. Powell has been flirting with contempt citations looking for a female witness that Bronson says gave him some of the payroll money to hold on to and of course like a dummy Bronson spent some of it and got caught with the money of course having registered serial numbers. Like Alan Ladd in This Gun For Hire it was hot money.

I mean really what kind of a lunkhead goes for that? But Bronson's in love and thinking with his male member. Powell's Paul Drake played by Walter Sande locates Marian Carr and she agrees to testify to save Bronson.

After that Powell turns into Perry Mason in court with the inevitable results associated with a Mason story. Erle Stanley Gardner couldn't have done it better for Perry.

The story has a lot of obvious holes in it. But Powell's breezy performance is a joy to watch. Note also that future big screen director Robert Aldrich directs the story. Four Star Playhouse was a developer of talent in front of and behind the camera.

Watch this one for its producer/star.