Popular reviews

• 

  Review by sakana1 ★★ 2

  A very talky Chic Sale vehicle, Star Witness is about the Leedses, a family that witnesses a gangland killing and, as a result of violence and a kidnapping, quite understandably lose their willingness to testify against the shooter.

  Though the film does feature some appealing performances, particularly those by Nat Pendleton's arms and child actors George Ernest and Dickie Moore, it's inevitably off-putting because its message is both unclear and inconsistent.

  For example, DA Whitlock (Walter Huston) is cruelly disrespectful of the family's feelings and fears, tossing the men in jail for their belief that testifying will endanger the boy who has been taken by the gang. It's hard to imagine we're supposed to agree with his arrogance, but since…

• 

  Review by russman ★★½

  I didn't see anything

• 

  Review by hellohildy ★★½

  A gangster picture from the angle of an innocent family of by-standers who witness murders and are terrorized to keep them from testifying.

  Wellman directs with a hard-nosed brutality, but the film suffers from some inept writing and the irritating presence of Chic Sale. Being an early talkie, they sure took the “talk” part to heart. Just a ton of awkward exposition to spell everything out for us. The appeal of Chic Sale and his coot routine is lost on me, and putting him in the mix does a disservice to the genuine drama of this family, and the fine performance by Grant Mitchell. 

  Still, it was a compelling story well shot with some good performances and the Warner back lot, so I could think of worse ways to spend 70 minutes.

• 

  Review by Will Remmers ★★★★★ 1

  Ensemble acting spectacle! Daddy Huston! Grant Mitchell great as always! Chic Sale actually younger than them both as old Civil War coot! Evil Nat Pendleton! Inept police! Actually cute child dialogue! Wellman! The underrated cinematography of James Van Trees (almost reaches Big City Blues levels of style)! One of the most unintentionally funny hard cuts to a newspaper of all time! WB gave the money from the first two showings (at the Winter Garden!! Where Follies would open!) to the families of five children injured by gangster gunfire in Harlem! They should have given it all!

• 

  Review by Beautifulkiller ★★½ 2

  When a family witnesses a murder, and some of them can identify the killer, their lives become terrifying in "Star Witness," a 1931 Warner Brothers film starring the great Walter Huston, Sally Blane, Dickie Moore, Edward Nugent and Chic Sale.

  It will be hard for a 21st century audience to believe this movie was nominated for an Oscar for original story, since we've seen it dozens of times since. Also, with a film like this, it's hard to envision it the way a 1931 audience did. Unfortunately for "Star Witness," it's just not one of those movies that has stood the test of time.

  Nevertheless, this 88-year-old film is interesting in that it tells us a lot about America, families,…

• 

  Review by Eliza ★★½

  this is not a movie this is money laundering with a movie as a front.

• 

  Review by OlivierBL ★★★

  Loin d'être un grand film mais quand même cute. Quelques beaux plans qui ressortent et un casting intéressant... inégal mais intéressant...

  Mais ils te garochaient ça en maudit les enfants à Hollywood à l'époque!😐

• 

  Review by Vinod Shankar 🦥 ★½

  This is the one Wellman movie I watched before I started going through his full filmography. I still don't like it at all. My first review may be a little harsh but I stand by it. This whole piece is so forced and meticulously artless, it comes off as questionable propaganda. I'm not entirely sure if it was intended as such or what, but I have to assume so.

• 

  Review by Vinod Shankar 🦥 ★½

  Oh ugh lord, I could barely tolerate this, and it's only like 70 mins long. It is about a family who see a gang murder someone outside their window and how big and scary the modern world is. But it's all done with like this terrible overly-sincere craft that just feels stupid.

  Like the old Grandpa character walks around playing "Yankee Doodle Dandy" on a fife and being like "my knee acts up!" and then gives a speech about one's duty as an American to stand up to 'dang dirty foreigners'. The little boys are just as cartoonish. It's a 1931 MAGA movie, built to manipulate the viewers' sympathies with a distorted Hollywood trope-filled view of reality.

• 

  Review by Brian Leary ★★★

  There's nothing special in the filmmaking or performances of this early crime film, but its Oscar-nominated story is interesting enough and the screenplay is tight enough that this is reasonably entertaining. Weird choice that Grandpa gets super racist in his moment of triumph, but honestly, that's probably true to real life. And no word on how many jail sentences for perjury ended up getting served.

• 

  Review by Tristan Ettleman

  Silly, yet dangerous, propaganda for a unilateral police state. Wellman almost makes the argument persuasively.

• 

  Review by Filipe Furtado ★★½

  One of the earlier anti-gangster films with Walter Huston screaming a lot as the DA. Most of the main plot stuff is pedestrian and preachy, but when the film focuses in the working class family caught in the middle one can feel the Wellman pre code touch.