Just in case its plot—and gamine leading lady—weren’t tip-offs enough that Blind Witness (1989) was a made-for-TV retread of Audrey Hepburn’s Wait Until Dark, a quick glance at its credits reveals a common cowriter, Robert Carrington. Working here with Edmond Stevens from a story by Tom Sullivan, he crafts a familiar cat-and-mouse thriller about a blind woman targeted by a sadistic murderer. What distinguishes Witness from similar disabled-woman-in-peril fare, like Sorry, Wrong Number or The Spiral Staircase, is the resourcefulness of its heroine, Maggie Kemlich (Victoria Principal), and the intensity of her pursuer, Remy (Tim Choate), a hardened criminal.
Visually impaired since childhood, Maggie has built a successful business and enjoys an adventurous marriage with the sighted Gordon (Stephen Macht of Fear Stalk). When he is killed in a home invasion, investigating Lt. Schapper (Matt Clark, scowling as only he could) discounts a bruised and shaken Maggie’s reliability as a witness on the basis of her blindness. Asked how she can be certain only two suspects were present, she confidently rises from her chair, crosses the room and introduces herself to his silent partner, Det. Tuthill (a guarded Paul Le Mat, the useless father in The Night They Saved Christmas). “It’s not a parlor trick,” she admonishes a surprised Schapper, whose smug certitude persists.
The lieutenant steps in it again almost immediately, telling her “We’ve been investigating a series of burglaries over the past year. I don’t know if you’ve been following the news. You may have seen—” After trailing off uncomfortably, he tells her of a double murder committed in the course of a similar burglary the month prior. His insistence the crimes are related, even after Tuthill pokes troubling holes in the theory, unwittingly places the grieving widow in jeopardy. She digs a deeper hole herself by defiantly telling a news crew that Gordon’s killers are still on the loose.
“Maggie, I don’t think this is the time for you to prove your independence,” concerned friend Joanna (Marcia Reider) frets after the attack, when she resolves to remain in her marital home. Principal’s strongest work comes in those early scenes highlighting Maggie’s determination to live as she pleases. She is less believable in more dramatically taxing sequences, including a campy hypnosis session that’s good for some laughs (watch as the camera looks for something to focus on other than Principal’s face) and a solo, contrivance-littered trip to the market that ends with her making a series of highly questionable decisions.
Director Richard A. Colla, a veteran of both episodic TV and telefilms, keeps the suspense taut and brings out the best in Choate, whose savage villain has his own physical challenges—he wears a leg brace, walks with a limp, and is grimly accepting of grievous injury in a way that seems instructive. His final showdown with Maggie is fraught with tension, but it’s her quest to be taken seriously and treated with respect that is her primary dramatic struggle. That’s something she shares with her presumptive romantic interest, Det. Tuthill, whose reputation is diminished due to his history of trauma and struggles with alcoholism. In Blind Witness, as in life, everyone has their own problems.
Streaming and DVD availability
Blind Witness is available on DVD. It also streams at Tubi and on Amazon.
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Cranky Lesbian is a disgruntled homosexual with too much time on her hands. Click for film reviews or to follow on Instagram.
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