Night Watch (1973 film)

Based on a play by Lucille Fletcher, Night Watch is a suspense thriller about a woman named Ellen Wheeler (Elizabeth Taylor), who one night, during a raging thunderstorm, frantically tells her husband John (Laurence Harvey) that from the living room window she has seen a murder being committed in the large old deserted house next door. John calls the police, but a search of the old house turns up nothing.

The next morning, Ellen notices a freshly planted bed of Laburnum in the garden next to the old house that was not there before. She calls the investigating detective, Inspector Walker (Bill Dean), and suggests that the body of the murder victim she witnessed may be buried there. Inspector Walker then questions the nextdoor neighbor of the old house, Mr. Appleby (Robert Lang), who confirms that he planted the trees the night before during the storm, but refuses to let the police search the garden or dig up the trees.

Ellen is revealed to be recovering from a mental breakdown that occurred after her unfaithful first husband, Carl, was killed a few years earlier in an auto accident with his paramour. Ellen was traumatized by having to identify the bodies in the local morgue. Inspector Walker confides to John that Ellen may be mentally ill and suggests rest and a doctor. Ellen continues to maintain that she saw a murder in the deserted house, but there is no proof and John remains skeptical. Ellen's visiting friend Sarah Cooke (Billie Whitelaw) is equally skeptical and tries humoring Ellen by suggesting that she sees what she thinks she sees because of her recent breakdown.

When both Ellen and Sarah see a man enter the old house the following night, they call the police, who find Mr. Appleby wandering around with a flashlight and arrest him for trespassing. A second search of the house and excavation of the garden reveal nothing, and Inspector Walker closes the case.

John then brings over a psychiatrist friend of his, Tony (Tony Britton). After learning about the death of Ellen's first husband and her nervous breakdown, Tony suggests going to a clinic in another country for a few weeks. Ellen agrees to do so. That evening, Ellen claims to John and Sarah that she saw another body in the old house next door, that of a woman. Ellen is then sedated by John and Sarah, who think that Ellen may be losing her mind.

The following evening, as Ellen prepares to leave for the airport she suddenly accuses John and Sarah of having an affair and plotting to drive her insane in order to commit her to an asylum, and she refuses to accept their denials. Ellen reveals a house key that she found, which belongs to the old house across the courtyard, but John still denies cheating on her or having anything to do with what has been going on. Ellen then runs into the old house and lets herself inside using the key, and both John and Sarah chase after her. It is here that Ellen lures both of them to the second floor room where she claimed to have seen the two bodies, and violently attacks and stabs both them to death with a butcher knife, positioning them in exactly the same manner that she claimed to have seen the two bodies.

The film's denouement reveals that Ellen had only pretended to be insane by claiming to have seen two murders in the house next door as part of a complex scheme of hers to murder both John and Sarah for their affair. Mr. Appleby, who had grown up in John and Ellen's house before they purchased it, makes a surprise appearance, startling Ellen and congratulating her on pulling off her complex scheme. After informing her that he won't go to the police, as Inspector Walker won't believe him either, Ellen asks Mr. Appleby to look after her house as well as the garden. Mr. Appleby happily agrees to do so as Ellen bids him goodbye and departs.

• Elizabeth Taylor as Ellen Wheeler
• Laurence Harvey as John Wheeler
• Billie Whitelaw as Sarah Cooke
• Robert Lang as Mr. Appleby
• Tony Britton as Tony
• Bill Dean as Inspector Walker
• Michael Danvers-Walker as Sergeant Norris
• Rosario Serrano as Dolores
• Pauline Jameson as Secretary
• Linda Hayden as Girl in car
• Kevin Colson as Carl
• Laon Maybanke as Florist
• David Jackson as Wilson

It was based on a play by Lucille Fletcher, best known for writing Sorry Wrong Number. The play starred Joan Hackett. Rehearsals began January 1972.[5] It opened the following month. The New York Times called it "a most excellent thriller... a first class example of its genre".[6]

Film rights to the play were bought prior to the play reaching Broadway by producer Martin Poll. He set up the film at Brut Productions, a newly formed film division of the Faberge Company, run by George Barrie. It was one of the first films from that company.[7]

Poll said "It's really a lot more now than a suspense story. It deals with the relationship between people torn by their emotions, they're betrayals and jealousies."[8]

It was decided to relocate the story to England. It was filmed at Elstree Studios in London. Brut financed the entire film, with Elizabeth Taylor taking a smaller salaray in exchange for a larger percentage. Director Brian Hutton had just made X Y and Zee with Taylor.[8] Laurence Harvey's casting was announced in April 1972.[9] George Barrie would later finance Harvey's last movie, Welcome to Arrow Beach.

Filming was interrupted several times. It shut down for a week when director Brian Hutton contracted bronchitis, and then later for six more weeks so Harvey could have an operation on his stomach. (He said at the time this was due to appendicits but it was the cancer that would soon kill him.) Filming ended in September 1972.[10]

In February 1973 Avco Embassy agreed to distribute the film along with another Brut Production, A Touch of Class.[11]

Time Out called it a "Tired, old-fashioned thriller";[12] whereas The New York Times wrote "Elizabeth Taylor, and about time, has got herself a good picture and a whodunit at that";[13] and Variety opined "Lucille Fletcher’s Night Watch isn’t the first average stage play to be turned into a better than average film. Astute direction and an improved cast more than help".[14]

• Night Watch at IMDb
• Night Watch at AllMovie
• Night Watch at Reel Streets
• Night Watch at Letterbox DVD