Walter Mitty Goes Noir-John Beal’s “Key Witness” (1947)-A Film Review

DVD Review

By Sam Lowell

Key Witness, starring John Beal, Trudy Marshall, Jimmy Lloyd, 1947        

Recently in reviewing a lesser Humphrey Bogart noir vehicle, In A Lonely Place which for my money was didn’t click, I mentioned in passing that not all noir was created equal. By that reference I had absent-mindedly assumed that there were certain parameters below which the genre would not fall. That “would not fall” being somewhere in the sphere of the low budget, low rent, low star power, B-film which strangely enough back in the day the Hollywood studios depended on to keep the audiences coming to their theaters (they conveniently owned the whole line of distribution). However the film under review, Key Witness, the 1947 use of the title not the 1960s film starring Jeffrey Hunter, no way, seemed determined to go below the low bar radar even greedy Hollywood should have left on the cutting room floor.           

I also mentioned in that Bogart review that he had performed more noteworthy iconic roles earlier in his career which gave rise to the world-weary, world-wary male actors in noir set films. This film is driven by the “exploits” of a more Walter Mitty-type persona named if you can believe this-Milton Higby (played by no name John Beal). Milton is a nine to five draftsman who moreover is henpecked by his every loving wife for almost everything from not asking for a raise to not cleaning the dishes and whatever else in between. Cleary we will be treated to no second coming of Sam Spade or Phillip Marlowe. And we aren’t

The most decisive thing Milton can do is tell his every loving wife that she should go on a trip to some forlorn aunt. That decision cleared the way for the craziness to come as Milton under the influence of a fellow draftsman co-worker goes to the track where he hits it big and inside of staying at home goes partying with his buddy and his girl-and her girlfriend. A girlfriend who before long is found on her living room floor very dead by Milton after he came to from some alcoholic stupor. A fall guy waiting to fall-no question. He goes on the lam though while every police agency in the country is looking for him for murder most foul, murder one.       

For an innocent guy he makes all the wrong decisions as he hits the hobo/tramp/bum highway picking up a fellow tramp along the way. They stumble into a dead guy and Milton decides that the best way out is to assume the dead man’s identity. Nice move. Except that somewhere in nowhere Arizona he got hit by a car and wound up in a hospital which assumed he was the dead man. More importantly the dead man was the missing scion to some serious fortune and so Milton accepted that role when a lawyer and then his “father” came to claim him. Whee.

Things go along swell for several months including his “father’s” backing for some novelty inventions that he had worked on. The stuff flew out of the factory doors. But this is where things got dicey. His work buddy (played by no name Jimmy Lloyd) and his every loving wife (played by no name Trudy Marshall were trying to clear his name and glammed onto his new life. No problem. No problem when the dead woman’s estranged husband had confessed to the murder most foul, murder one. Except now Milton was on the spot for the killing of his “father’s” real son. Yeah, they had the gallows ready to hang him high, hang him real high. Except just before midnight his old tramp buddy came in and cleared him. And the whole crew lived happily ever after one big happy family including the tramp –literally. My reaction after watching this vehicle was WTF. That says it all.