Guilty Bystander (1950)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Not knowing what else to do, Georgia Thursday (Faye Emerson) contacts her ex-husband, alcoholic Max Thursday (Zachary Scott), after their toddler son Jeff goes missing. Max, a former NYPD detective, is now the house detective of the rundown Brooklyn establishment, the Riverview Hotel, run by his streetwise friend, Smitty (Mary Boland), who gave him a job and a room when nobody arguably would. Georgia did not go to the police as her now-missing brother Fred Mace's disreputable associate Dr. Elder (Jed Prouty) threatened her against doing so, in that he probably had something to do with the missing pair. As such, Max goes on a quest for Jeff and, by association, Fred (Dennis Patrick) with the only lead they have, namely Dr. Elder, with help from Smitty, who knows, through experience, the grittier side of most urban streets in the United States than most. In the process, Max comes to believe that their disappearance most-likely centers on a criminal with the code name St. Paul, with Jeff solely being an innocent bystander in whatever criminal activity is going on. Beyond following the leads, the question becomes whether Max can hold it all together, namely by staying away from the bottle, long enough to save his family. - Actors:
- Zachary Scott, Faye Emerson, Mary Boland, Sam Levene, J. Edward Bromberg, Kay Medford, Jed Prouty, Harry Landers, Elliott Sullivan, Ray Julian, Dennis Patrick, Garney Wilson, Donald Novis, Lou Herbert, Jesse White, Scott Landers, Lester Lonergan, Maurice Gosfield, John Marley
- Directors:
- Joseph Lerner
- Producers:
- Rex Carlton
- Writers:
- Whit Masterson, H. William Miller, Don Ettlinger
- Aka:
- Виновный свидетель
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Thrillers
More like Guilty Bystander
Reviews (1) of Guilty Bystander
One Drink Behind the Plot - Guilty Bystander review by griggs
Some films take their time getting started — Guilty Bystander just throws you straight in and lets you catch up. Within minutes everyone’s lying, drinking, or both, and the story’s already halfway down a dark alley. The script’s uneven, but it moves fast and throws in just enough grit and sarcasm to keep it fun.
The direction’s tight and surprisingly nimble, pulling a dozen loose threads into something that mostly holds together. You do end up a step ahead of our gloriously named washed-up detective, Max Thursday, who’s always one drink behind the plot — but that’s part of the charm. Sam Spade he’s not.
Only a few moments truly land — the chase across the A-train subway tracks being the standout — yet the cast keeps it watchable even when the pace dips. Guilty Bystander isn’t perfect, but it’s scrappy, sharp, and hard-boiled enough to leave a mark.