Hottoceame
The Age of Commercialism
ReaderKenka
Let's be realistic.
Mabel Munoz
Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?
Mischa Redfern
I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.
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.
kapelusznik18
***SPOILERS*** A pre "Leave it to Beaver" 8 year old Jerry Mathers as Petey Atlas finds himself in the middle of a murder & kidnapping when he stumbles across these three juvenile delinquents, which they were known as back in the 1950's, who after beating the owner of the house Ben Canfield, Watson Downs, to death took his mom Linda Atlas, Betty Garerett, who was there looking for a job hostage. Traumatized by what he saw Petey loses both his voice & memory of the tragic incident and is picked up, aimlessly walking down the highway, by a couple of truckers who take him to the nearest truck depot in order to both identify him and find his parents. As it turned out the cop who's in charge, or better yet took charge, in finding Petey's mom is non other that his dad Officer Tony Atlas, no relations as far as I can see to Charles, played by that handsome hunk or a man Phil Carey.Back at the Canfield house the three juveniles lead by psycho Jess Reber, John Barrymore Jr, and his two pals the sensitive but at the same time maniacal Joey Gomaz, Gerald Sarracini, who in fact brained Mr. Canfield to death and all American looking Gil Ramsby, Cory Allen, try to make their way out with the $6,000.00 they ripped off the murdered Mr. Canfield. But with them facing the San Quentin gas chamber, for murder & kidnapping, their chances of surviving a major police as well as FBI manhunt aren't that good.****SPOILERS**** It's the crazed jess Reber who tries to take command of the trio who's crazy actions ends up doing both Gomez & Ramsby in with them never living long enough to see the end of the movie. Gomaz ended up getting killed, by him trying to protect Mrs. Atlas, by Reber and Ramsby getting shot by the police in refusing to give himself up when surrounded by them! Reber the one who planned to go down in a blaze of glory ended up meekly giving himself up and releasing Mrs. Atlas when he saw that his goose was cooked with her husband Officer Tony Atlas pointing a gun to his head after slapping him silly! As for the "Beaver" or Petey Atlas in the end he was not only reunited with his parents, who also reunited after being divorced, but also got his voice and memory back as well.P.S Actor Cory Allen who co-stared with James Dean in "Rebel without a Cause" had the unenviable distinction of not only having his co-star James Dean in the movie die tragically in a car accident a week before the film was released but also had his co-star here Gerlad Sarracini tragically die in trying to prevent a mugging outside a Manhattan night-club restaurant some eight months after the movie "the Shadow in the Window"-that he stared in with Sarracini-was also released!
Neil Doyle
SHADOW ON THE WINDOW starts out promisingly enough with JERRY MATHER witnessing a violent crime through a window, but then starts to sag as the police try to pry information from the dazed boy.The male lead is detective PHILIP CAREY who gives such an indifferent performance when he learns his ex-wife is being held captive by some thugs that he fails to give the rest of the story any real sense of urgency. Nor does BETTY GARRET as the captured secretary who has to contend with three foolish young thugs, one of whom is played by JOHN BARRYMORE, JR. Unofortunately, all of the capture scenes are played with low-key intensity and suffer from a poor script.What should have been a gripping police drama involving thugs and a victimized little boy and woman victim, is a tepid, almost amateurish attempt at suspense that produces more yawns than thrills.Trivia note: Best performance among the thugs comes from COREY ALLEN, who played "Buzz" in the James Dean flick, REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. His chase scene provides the only real tense moments in the film.
gordonl56
Better than expected thriller about a home invasion robbery gone wrong. Jerry Mathers plays a young boy who witnesses a murder at a home where his mother (Betty Garrett)is working. In shock, the boy wanders off before being picked up by a passing truck. He is dropped off with the police where it so happens the boy's father, Phil Carey, is a detective. Unable to get the boy to talk, the police begin a city-wide dragnet hoping to grab up someone who might know the location of Garrett. John Barrymore Jr., Corey Allen and Gerald Sarrcini are the not so bright hoods holding Garrett. Having murdered Garrett's boss during the robbery they must decide whether to kill her as well. Several gun battles and a couple of more bodies are piled up before Carey saves the day with a just in time rescue. OK time-waster.