Movie Review: I Saw What You Did (1965)

The movie stars Joan Crawford, John Ireland, Sara Lane, Andi Garrett, Sharyl Locke John Archer and Leif Erickson.

My oldest daughter picked this particular film our for our father/daughter movie time and, since I had never heard of it before, I wasn't really sure what to expect. However, after watching it with her last night, I have to admit, it was a much better thriller than expected.

The thing I found I really liked about this movie is the overall plot wasn't anything overly complex or unbelievable. Libby (Garrett) and Kit (Lane), being teenagers, just make a series of increasingly dumb decisions that ultimately get them in trouble. This starts out as a poorly-timed prank call to a man (Ireland) that just killed his wife Psycho-style in the shower.

And, just because that wasn't dangerous and stupid enough, a very hormonal Libby (who apparently is having a romantic fantasy about the man she dialed at random) decides to drive to his house so she can see what he looks like, a mistake that, ultimately, results in him knowing where she lives. Once that happens and Libby is left alone in the house with her younger sister, Tess (Locke), things really get interesting.

Another thing I liked about this movie was the way the initial murder went wrong. I'm still not completely sure if the murder was a last-second decision or something that had been planned for a long time, but once the wife (Joyce Meadows) was dead, everything went downhill from that point on. This included his neighbor/mistress (Crawford) walking in a couple minutes later, him being spotted, by accident, as he tried to dispose of the body, the prank call and, finally, Crawford's character finding out about the murder and trying to blackmail him into marrying her. This was important to the overall plot, I think, because it helped make him much more unstable and paranoid, making it difficult to tell just how far he would go to keep his secret.

My only real complaint about this movie had to be the background music, which just didn't fit the tone of the film. This movie had a pretty serious plot but the music, for some reason, was light-hearted and upbeat, as though we were watching a comedy. I think the filmmakers would have been better off just leaving it out as a result of that.

Other than the bad choice in music, I think this movie exceeded my expectations. It was a decent and entertaining thriller that my daughter and I both enjoyed. If you haven't seen this film before, I do recommend watching it.

My Grade: B