The Witness Chair (1936) User Reviews

Harding might have hated this one...I thought it was pretty good.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 30 June 2017]

While "The Witness Chair" is a bit static, I liked the film....which is in sharp contrast to what Ann Harding apparently thought about the picture. According to IMDb, she tried to get out of the picture midway through production because she hated the script...which is odd since she'd already apparently read and approved it.

When the story begins, you see Paula (Harding) sneaking out of her office building and it seems obvious she's done something. A few hours later, the cleaning crew discover a corpse...it's Mr. Whitaker (Douglas Dumbrille). At first it looks like a suicide and he signed a note saying he'd embezzled $75,000. However, the cops soon realize that it couldn't have been a suicide and the man exonerated by the suicide note, Mr. Trent (Walter Abel) is arrested for murder...though there really isn't good evidence he's done the crime.

The rest of the story is set in the courtroom and follows the case of Mr. Trent. I would say more but don't want to spoil and of the surprises...and there are a few.

It's funny. While the film doesn't have any action and involves a lot of talking, it's a good picture...particularly because of the writing. So, I have no idea what was going on with Harding and her initial refusal to finish the movie....perhaps there was actually something else going on at the time. All I know is that the picture kept my interest and was enjoyable.

Good Actors Prop Up Bad Script

[boblipton · 5/10 · 3 October 2006]

One of the problems with a lot of courtroom dramas of the 1930s -- and this one in particular -- is that they are mysteries. Now mysteries make good stories and good movies, since they have usually have a fast start -- someone is killed -- and a definite plot -- the detection of the guilty. But when they take place in the courtroom, as does this one, they are largely composed of showing that the accused person did not do it -- and what does that say about all the people involved in the investigation and the prosecution? It results in a certain amount of idiot plotting and I always find that annoying. Lawyers do not ask questions they do not know the answer to, and people do not pop up to confess that they shot the dead man, Perry Mason notwithstanding.

Nonetheless, this movie is not awful, and it is largely due to the work of the actors involved. Walter Abel, as the accused, and Ann Harding, as the secretary who loves him, are fine actors and manage to bring a semblance of emotional reality, if not verisimilitude to this piece of tripe. Not enough to make it worthwhile -- both actors have been much better served -- but enough to keep you watching to the hackneyed end.

He's got a gun in his hand! He must have suicide himself!

[sol1218 · 6/10 · 29 January 2013]

***SPOILERS*** It's when both cleaning lady Anna Yifnick & night watchman Mr. O'Neil, Hilda Vaughn & Barlowd Borland, found Stanley Whittaker, Douglass Dumbrille, shot dead in his office at the Continental Textile Building it was assumed by them as well as the police, who later came on the scene, that the guy did himself in! The fact that Whittaker left a note absolving his partner in the company Jim Trent, Walter Able, of all blame in embezzling $75,000.00 from it which in fact he did all but closed any more reasons for investigating in the case! But one thing that didn't seem to check out is that Whittaker himself was in fact planing to check out of he country on a boat trip to Europe that very evening! And even stranger, for someone who ends up killing himself, he was going to marry at sea Trent's daughter Connie, Frances Sage. The very man whom he at first framed and later,in his suicide note, absolved from embezzling his own company!

With the police pathologist determining that it was murder not suicide that caused Whittaker's death it's his partner Jim Trent, who was at the office around the time of Whittaker's death, who's arrested and charged with his murder. Things get a bit interesting at the trial when it's found out that Whittaker indeed embezzled his company and framed Trant when it's discovered that the man inspecting the company's books Mr. Henshaw, Charles Arnt, was paid off with $5,000.00 by Whittaker to look the other way! What's even more strange is the fact that heel Stanley Whittaker wasn't planning to marry Connie at all but, in leaving her standing at the dock, check out of the country without her!

****SPOILERS*** It's Whittaker's personal secretary Paula Young, Ann Harding, who knows what in fact happened at the office and who murdered her boss Doglass Whittaker. But she wasn't talking until it became obvious that her friend Mr. Trent was soon going to be convicted of murdering him! Something that Paula just couldn't stand by and let happen! The movie built up to an explosive climax that left everyone, in the court room and TV audience, in a total state of shock. But in the end justice was served even though Whittaker's killer would very probably never have been, due the extenuating circumstances in the case, convicted of the crime.

Decent B Picture

[Michael_Elliott · 1 February 2013]

The Witness Chair (1936)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Late one night Paula Young (Ann Harding) sneaks out of her boss' (Douglass Dumbrille) office, locking the door behind her and sneaking down the stairs so that no one sees her leave. The next morning his body is found in what appears to be a suicide but the police inspector (Moroni Olsen) thinks something isn't adding up and charges the man's partner (Walter Abel) with murder. THE WITNESS CHAIR has this "plot" shown in the first half and then the second half of the picture takes place as people take the witness stand and give their testimony on what they know. We are then shown flashbacks to the events leading up to what really happened. Fans of Turner Classic Movies like myself probably record countless "B" mysteries early in the morning and like most, this one here doesn't offer anything new to the genre but it's entertaining enough to make it worth viewing. I thought the format of the movie was actually quite good. The way the flashbacks happened from the witness stand was an effective way to tell a story but some of the testimony seems to happen to help keep the film moving and if you stop and think about it, some of the testimony shows action that the one testifying couldn't have possible known. The performances from the entire cast certainly help as well. Harding is good as the strong witness holding back some information and what she did the night she sneaks out of the building. Olsen was a lot of fun early on as he investigates the crime. Future Dead End Kid William Benedict gets a few funny moments and Margaret Hamilton is good in her small role. Again, nothing new is done with the picture and there are certain some dry moments, which isn't good in a 64-minute film. I won't spoil anything but the ending is also horrendously awful. Still, fans of the genre should still enjoy the film.

Well, it does have Ann

[marcslope · 5/10 · 25 July 2017]

Predictable, talky, unsuspenseful courtroom drama, with Walter Abel held for murdering business partner Douglas Dumbrille, while secretary Ann Harding obviously knows there's more to it. Some fun supporting players, notably Margaret Hamilton as an office busybody, and it's over in 64 minutes. And while an unambiguous happy ending is impossible, it does have a hopeful one. But it has little really going for it but Ann, who, as always, is dedicated and interesting, with a certain... stillness that suggests a woman who's thinking all the time. She didn't like this one much, and she was right. But she's the only reason to watch.

Complex murder mystery works thanks to amusing characterizations.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 10 April 2018]

This is a lively little B murder mystery with a bit of comedy that was more enjoyable for me the third time around, having first seen it 25 years ago when I got TCM and binged watched for a second time with a bunch of Ann Harding RKO Radio films. At the tail end of her contract, Harding had become seemingly typecast as the cool headed elegant blonde, so much a lady it was said that butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. Yet, her nobility and long suffering characters made her a favorite in the pre-code era, but for this B second feature, she becomes a woman of secrets. In the very first seen, she is spotted running down a long flight of office building steps, and the next day, the body of her boss, Douglas Dumbrille, is discovered. The villain of several Marx Brothers comedies, Dumbrille is believed to have killed himself, having been discovered to be an embezzler. The office staff is torn between their feelings for him, with bookkeeper Margaret Hamilton insisting that he was a great man, while others, such as Harding, Maxine Jennings and wise-cracking office boy Billy Benedict (stealing the entire film) are not so sure.

It appears that Dumbrille was trying to frame his boss, Walter Abel, for stealing from the company, and Abel's daughter, Frances Sage, becomes involved in this scandal as well. Each of the staff members and some stereotypically dumb law enforcement officers (among them Moroni Olsen) take the witness stand, with Hamilton almost cited for contempt of court and Benedict slyly ridiculing the entire proceedings. Jennings takes the stand and must repeat her testimony several times due to the fact that she talks so fast that the attorneys and judge can not understand her. Everything erupts, though, when Harding stands up in the middle of another testimony, changing the outcome of the case, and revealing all with a shocking twist. The set-up of this film reminded me of the 1932 Edna May Oliver murder comedy "Ladies of the Jury", remade just a year after "The Witness Chair" as "We're on the Jury". Only Harding seems out of place here, perhaps because her character is given absolutely no sense of humor or sparkle. But thanks to the supporting characters, this ends up a nice second feature where individual lines as delivered by Benedict, Hamilton and Jennings will have you totally amused.