Coventry "The Shadow on the Window" is a rather anonymous and insignificant 50s drama/thriller, but it's engaging enough for as long as it lasts, thanks to a few interesting story ideas and a decent cast. I'm sure that director William Asher envisioned making a fantastic hostage thriller with film-noir echoes, in the vein of "The Desperate Hours" that was released two years earlier, but he eventually had to settle for a modest B-movie without spectacular action footage or Humphrey Bogarts in the cast. Little 7-year-old Petey accompanies his mother to a large and remote farmhouse. It's her first working day as a secretary for a wealthy, elderly businessman, while Petey plays outside in the garden. Unfortunately enough, three ruthless young thugs decided that today they would invade the home of the old man and rob him. Just when little Petey looks through the window, he witnesses how the man is brutally killed by the assailants. Petey promptly goes into a severe state of shock, runs off into the streets and gets picked up by friendly truck drivers. While his mother is kept hostage by unprepared but extremely dangerous criminals, Petey is reunited with his father – and police detective – Tony Atlas but he remains in shock and unable to explain what is happening to her. It's definitely a good plot for a tense and forceful "race-against-the-clock" thriller, but the screenplay nevertheless suffers from a couple of defaults and clichés. I really don't understand, for example, why the hoodlums remain in the house or why one of them has to be a sensitive one. The leader of the pack, John Drew Barrymore, tries really hard to look handsome and nihilistic, and he probably dreamed of becoming the next James Dean. The little kid who portrayed Petey, on the other hand, became quite famous thanks to his role in the TV-series "Leave it to the Beaver".

MartinHafer When the film begins, a group of punks are tormenting some people at a farmhouse. Soon, they kill the old man who lives there and the lady who is visiting (Betty Garrett) is being held captive...and all this is seen by her very young son (Jerry Mathers) who has been playing outside. Naturally, the boy is traumatized and he wanders off in a catatonic haze. Eventually he's found wandering along a highway and the kid is taken to the police. The boy is recognized-- -he's the son of one of the cops! The woman, apparently, is the cop's ex-wife. Can the police figure out where the woman and these sickos are in order to rescue her?This is a tense and reasonably well made film. I particularly like the scene where the woman attempts an escape--it's surprisingly brutal. Well worth seeing and currently posted on YouTube.

mark.waltz Several years before this came out, Columbia had made an above average thriller called "The Night Holds Terror", a definite copy-cat of "The Desperate Hours" where a traveling businessman ends up giving a lift to a group of thugs who hold his family hostage, and here, it happens again, albeit with several dramatic changes. It's "All in the Family" for Philip Carey (who once played Archie Bunker's gay football player friend in a first season episode) and Betty Garrett (Archie's nemesis, Irene) who are separated due to her desire to go back to work. The opening scene has their son (Jerry Mathers, as different as Beaver as you can get!) spying his mother being thrown to the ground during a struggle with a group of thugs and the old man who has hired her for the day being killed. He runs off in a daze, is picked up by some truckers, and ends up in police custody where ironically his father is called in after another officer recognizes him. Garrett's whereabouts are a mystery to everybody who knows her, and it is only through some clever calculating that her location is discovered, hopefully in the nick of time.While this is a very enjoyable thriller, it seems like there is a lot of padding added to make this even get to its 72 minute running time, pretty short for a movie of the late 50's. That indicates that it was a second feature, a breed slowly dying out at this time, but there is enough action to keep it moving. The problem is the variety of existential characters added, from the drunken warehouse foreman whom the truckers dumped Mathers on and his awaiting wife (not to mention his mistress), and the dead old man's niece and her husband who obviously only keep in touch with him so they'll end up in his will. What is very interesting is how Garrett manages to manipulate the three men holding her hostage, gaining the sympathy of one of the men who knows that his partner (John Drew Barrymore, billed simply as John Barrymore Jr.) is a violent psycho. Of course, when you get the criminals arguing with each other, it is pretty obvious that they will eventually turn on each other. Carey ends up in a chase with the third thug, leading to an emotional scene with that gangster's mother and a chase on the apartment rooftop that leads to more clues but also leads to a violent finale.This was a far different role that Broadway musical legend Betty Garrett had ever played in, having been mostly in a handful of musical films like "On the Town", "Take Me Out to the Ballgame", and most recently, "My Sister Eileen". She only has one scene with husband and son Carey and Mathers, but obviously had worked with them for family photos which Carey finds still up when he visits his former home to find some clues. "One Life to Live" fans will be delighted to see the future Asa Buchannan in this major part, a reminder that he was once one of the busiest action/western stars in films, not just a future soap patriarch. Mathers is very touching (and convincing) as the mostly quiet kid, scared into silence by the violence he's witnessed. Yet, there's no confusion that this is none other than the future Beaver Cleaver from his very first shot, wearing cowboy gear, and clicking a toy gun. This is definitely worth a look for how 1950's thrillers of all types could engross you even though they could have easily been made for the then popular genre of Anthology shows which were all over the T.V. airwaves of the 1950's and 60's.

John Seal Starring Jerry Mathers as the shell-shocked child who witnesses an assault on his mother, Shadow On the Window is a decent 'B' film with a solid cast and a decent script. Jerry's dad, a police officer, is played stoically by Phil Carey and mom is Betty Garrett, decent as a woman under constant threat from three stereotypical teen bad boys. One of the boys is played by Corey Allen, who revisited the role in the similarly themed Key Witness (1960), and the others are John Drew Barrymore--apparently channeling the spirit of an evil Dobie Gillis--and lovable lunk Gerald Sarracini. Beach Party director William Asher displayed his serious side here, and cinematographer Kit Carson got some nice set-ups during the climactic chase scene across roof tops and through subway tunnels. I'd love to know where this was filmed--perhaps somewhere in the Imperial Valley of California?