"Eight Witnesses" is a film in the public domain and after seeing how dull and cheap it was, I think I can understand why no one bothered to renew the copyright on this one! The film is a Cold War thriller about spies and communism (though oddly communism or the Soviets are NEVER mentioned). This stuff sure should have been tense and exciting...but it wasn't.
When the film begins, Dr. Ernst Hildebrandt has escaped from this captors behind the Iron Curtain. However, oddly, he hasn't yet turned up in the West. Eventually he does show--but only briefly to his daughter. Then, he quickly disappears and his body is found in a library. However, the witnesses to his murder are an odd lot--they are all blind. Using these witnesses, his strange daughter and intuition, an agent tries to piece events together. After all, the professor was supposed to be carrying important documents on him and they were not found on the body. And, the killers are apparently still looking for them. Eventually, the papers are recovered...but by then, you really don't care!
As I said, the film is very low energy (the actors NEVER seem emotional or real), dull, has uninteresting characters and has a musical score that is cheap and doesn't fit the movie. In fact, I'd swear it's recycled as often it his inappropriate crescendos and seemed a bit random and over-done. Additionally, Peggy Ann Gardner was a poor choice to play the daughter, as she was supposedly from the same country as her father had an American accent--yet his was very pronounced and sounded like he was from central Europe. How could you possibly make a spy movie involving a murder THIS dull?!
When the film begins, Dr. Ernst Hildebrandt has escaped from this captors behind the Iron Curtain. However, oddly, he hasn't yet turned up in the West. Eventually he does show--but only briefly to his daughter. Then, he quickly disappears and his body is found in a library. However, the witnesses to his murder are an odd lot--they are all blind. Using these witnesses, his strange daughter and intuition, an agent tries to piece events together. After all, the professor was supposed to be carrying important documents on him and they were not found on the body. And, the killers are apparently still looking for them. Eventually, the papers are recovered...but by then, you really don't care!
As I said, the film is very low energy (the actors NEVER seem emotional or real), dull, has uninteresting characters and has a musical score that is cheap and doesn't fit the movie. In fact, I'd swear it's recycled as often it his inappropriate crescendos and seemed a bit random and over-done. Additionally, Peggy Ann Gardner was a poor choice to play the daughter, as she was supposedly from the same country as her father had an American accent--yet his was very pronounced and sounded like he was from central Europe. How could you possibly make a spy movie involving a murder THIS dull?!