Alfred Hitchcock Presents (TV Series) Safety for the Witness (1958) User Reviews

If you want something done right, do it yourself.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 2 April 2021]

"Safety for the Witness" is set in the gangster era of the roaring 20s. A gunsmith (Art Carney) witnesses a gangland murder...and the killers also shoot him repeatedly. However, he awakens in the hospital and did survive...and the police try, in vain, to get him to tell them who did it. But considering the man the hitmen killed was a guy who had agreed to testify against the mob, Carney's character isn't about to tell them anything....he's going to take care of the problem himself.

So why do I only score this one a 5? Well, there are two big problems with the show. First, the twist isn't particularly interesting nor ironic...it's a bit limp. Second, during the epilogue, Alfred Hitchcock did something that OFTEN spoiled excellent crime episodes...he tells the audience that the man with the perfect crime was caught and punished!! Huh?! I can only assume he was doing this to please the sponsors.......but really frustrates the viewer and essentially says "everything you just witnessed about the perfect crime...well, ignore it...crime doesn't pay!". How ridiculous.

"We need a witness to tell us who killed the witness."

[classicsoncall · 5/10 · 4 October 2021]

Forget about the lack of a twist ending for this story. The real surprise occurs about half way through when Cyril T. Jones (Art Carney) has to shell out a whole three dollars and fifty cents for a hotel room! At least it was a room with a view overlooking Lynch's Lunch, a favorite hangout for mobsters Big Dan Foley (Karl Davis) and Tarzan Joe Felix (James Flavin). Jonesey uses his lookout to rub out the two gangsters after they had opened fire on him for witnessing one of their murders. I guess forensics was not a big deal for the cops on this case, as the angle of trajectory and the hotel desk clerk who rented Jones the room could have made a statement that he was the guy with the gun. Better yet, they were probably willing to let well enough alone for eliminating a couple of troublesome hoodlums.

This isn't one of the better vehicles in which to catch Art Carney, who's best remembered for his role as Ed Norton in "The Honeymooners". However he does give a very poignant performance in a second season episode of The Twilight Zone titled 'The Night of the Meek'. I would recommend that one along with his 1974 feature film "Harry And Tonto". Karl Davis was know as 'Killer' whenever he put on the pro wrestling tights. He's one of a handful of guys who successfully transitioned from the wrestling ring to acting, along with one of my personal favorites, 'Iron' Mike Mazurki.

Just Plain Dull

[Hitchcoc · 5/10 · 8 July 2013]

This is post Honeymooner Art Carney. He plays a gun shop owner who sells both to the public and to gangsters. The police become annoyed with him because of his impartial distribution of firearms. He is annoyed with them because every time a witness testifies against one of the baddies, they are found dead. Unfortunately, as he's walking down the street, he witnesses two of his regular customers, a couple of kingpins, slaughtering another witness. Now, "he" is the witness. Being an expert at firearms, he goes to a seventh floor hotel room with a package containing a silencer and high powered rifle. He proceeds to snipe the two guys. Now he feels he must be in protective custody. He admits to the crime, but because of his tame appearance, the police refuse to put him in jail for more than a few minutes. They just won't cooperate. If there are any redeeming qualities of this episode, I guess it's Art Carney, but in this role, he isn't even that interesting.

Despite Art Carney, this was a terrible episode

[FlushingCaps · 2/10 · 29 January 2021]

Art Carney stars as a mild-mannered gunsmith, set in "A Big City" in 1927. The town is plagued by mobsters who are quite able to stay out of prison by killing witness the police are trying to protect. As Cyril T. Jones, Carney happily sells guns to good citizens and the mobsters.

One day, right after seeing a newspaper photo of the latest witness, Jones is walking down a street and he sees that very witness get gunned down by two of the hoodlums he has done business with. When they see he witnesses this killing, they say "Sorry" and fire away at him.

It turns out he was only wounded-sloppy killers-and after a few weeks in the hospital, where he has resisted all police attempts to get him to say who shot him, he decides he needs to do something else to be safe from the killers. He goes to his shop, gets out a big rifle and a silencer, checks into a local hotel and soon after, sees the two men who shot him, standing on the sidewalk across from his hotel room. He gets his rifle ready and fires two shots, killing both killers.

I need to point out how this was a "super-silencer" as we heard virtually no sound at all. The first hood fell dead on the sidewalk and his buddy standing right next to him never noticed, never moved, leaving him an easy # 2 target for Jones.

Jones at this point could have checked out of the hotel, and gone back to his life. The only people he could finger for the other witnesses murder were now dead, so he was no danger to any mobsters who worked with the men he just killed. He wouldn't even have been a suspect, given the way the police think of him as such a milquetoast.

Instead, he goes to the police station and bluntly confesses. Police don't believe him at all. It seems he actually wants to be imprisoned for murdering these hoodlums so nobody from the mob will come after him. If the police prosecuted him, he would likely have gotten the electric chair for premeditated murder of people who were not at that point threatening him. Life in prison, or at least, a very long stretch would be the next most likely scenario. Oh, and with all sort of nogoodniks in prison, if mobsters wanted revenge, he would seem likely to face it there and not live long in prison garb.

I simply cannot figure how on earth a man fearful of being killed by mobsters would want to spend long years in prison so they can't kill him. His whole actions after wiping out those two make absolutely no sense.

***Spoiler about the ending**** The police decide there's no point in prosecuting Jones, for killing two hoodlums, a jury would not convict him. So they kick him out of his cell and he looks distraught at his plight as the show ends.

When Jones shot those two, I figured he was going to pack up his gunsmithing business and move to another city. He really didn't seem to have much to fear now that the men he could finger were dead. He would likely never be blamed or even suspected, and he could have safely gone back to his business. But whichever way he wanted to go-wanting to spend many years in prison, or be executed, defies all logic. Dumb episode = a score of 2.

Wait, it's over?

[imdb-6252 · 1/10 · 18 August 2019]

That's what I said to my wife when it was over. I'm a huge Art Carney/Honeymooners fan. Carney was dull and the plot was barely existent. That only interesting thing about it was when he wrote a check to the hospital What a stinker!

PS can't be any spoilers. There is nothing to spoil. Skip this one, trust me.

Sacred witness

[TheLittleSongbird · 3/10 · 18 May 2023]

Norman Lloyd directed nineteen 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' episodes, was a producer for most of the series' run and even acted in five episodes (his biggest role being in "Design for Loving"). "Safety of the Witness" is his second directing credit for the series, after "The $2,000,000 Defence". The premise did sound intriguing and potentially very suspenseful if done right. It was very interesting seeing Art Carney in a lead role of this type, with the role in need of intensity and edge.

"Safety of the Witness" however was a major disappointment. Season 4 had a lot of fine episodes, but did have its misfires too and this is one of the biggest ones (along with "Don't Interrupt"). Also one of my least favourites of 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' and it is sad that a great lead performance is so let down by almost everything else being so poorly executed. As far as Lloyd's episodes as director go, "Safety of the Witness" is a very strong contender for the worst.

The best thing about it is Carney, who does very well with what he is given, didn't think him dull at all. He does give some subtle intensity while also providing a character that is not too hard to root for initially.

Did think too that the episode looked pretty slick and atmospheric and that the theme music for the series is still suitably macabre. It starts quite well.

A lot of shortcomings can be seen in "Safety of the Witness" however. It runs out of steam very quickly and becomes increasingly sillier and duller. It is a very ploddingly paced episode, directed indifferently, and has a paper thin story that severely lacks suspense. What should have been suspenseful instead comes over as silly, and when there is signs of a story it doesn't make sense. Especially the truly dumb decision making of Carney's character towards the end, in one of the most senseless changes of heart of the series that undoes what happened previously and made the character really stupid.

It is agreed too that the ending is a colossal cheat and one of the series' most unsatisfying, the very equivalent of the it's all a dream type ending when done badly. The twist is not much of one, pretty limp and predictable as well as far fetched and this is another episode that really could have done without Hitchcock's epilogue. Which adds nothing and over explains. Usually really enjoy Hitchcock's bookendings, but the irony here is not that strong and not amusing. The dialogue rambles and Carney's character goes from rootable to truly frustrating when his decision making becomes stupider and more vague.

Overall, very disappointing. 3/10.