http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022430/
Star Witness, The (1931) - full review!
Directed by William A. Wellman, and written by Lucien Hubbard (Smart Money (1931)) who earned the last of his Academy recognition with an Oscar nomination for his original story, this slightly above average crime drama features a career performance by Charles ‘Chic’ Sale, who plays a feisty old Civil War veteran grandpa to perfection. The story's about a family who witnesses a gang murder right outside their window; they come face-to-face with the killer (played by Ralph Ince), who threatens them not to testify about what they'd seen. The gangster's mob then takes steps to insure the family's silence, frustrating the ambitious district attorney (Walter Huston) until Grandpa saves the day. Filmed during prohibition, when gang violence ruled the day, the film's dialogue is preachy at times, but in a good way; though the specific circumstances are dated, its message is as timely as ever.
Grant Mitchell plays George Leeds, Frances Starr plays his wife Abbie. They're the parents of two grown children, jobless Jackie (Edward J. Nugent) and Sue (Sally Blane) who works at the same business as her accountant father, and two preteen boys, baseball playing pitcher Donny (George Ernest), who dotes on five year old ‘cutie’ Ned (Dickie Moore). Abbie's father, Grandpa Summerill (Sale), served in the Civil War and is still full of spit & vinegar despite his age, though he drinks "bitters" to soothe the pain of his injured leg; he lives in the old soldiers’ home but has come for a visit, arriving just in time for dinner. Their meal is interrupted by the sound of shooting in the streets; the family (save Sue, who had gone to the cellar for some jam) rushes to the window and witnesses a man in a yellow raincoat gunning down two men. The police arrive shortly thereafter, so the killer and his counterparts escape through the Leeds's home, stopping to threaten the family to forget about what they'd seen. The man in the yellow raincoat, who's later identified as Maxey Campo (Ince), even strikes Grandpa, who had stood up to him, before he and the other thugs ran through the kitchen out the back way.
District Attorney Whitlock (Huston) is thrilled to have the Leeds family validate his suspicions that the man (in the yellow raincoat) who did the shooting was Campo; he'd shown them pictures of the culprit for their positive identification. Whitlock had been fighting a losing battle against Campo, his gang and others; the men Campo killed included a witness to another crime and his police officer escort. However, he's able to arrest Campo, holding him for a pending grand jury indictment. But another mobster named Big Jack (Nat Pendleton) abducts George and threatens him not to testify about what he'd seen Campo do; George is beaten and left for dead in a stream. Fortunately, he'd found and the Leeds household is put under house arrest by Whitlock and his deputy (Russell Hopton) for their own protection. George and the rest of his family is not so sure about testifying, now, with the exception of Grandpa, who insists that it's his duty, that he'd fought to keep the country together and wants a better world for his grandchildren than the kind that could be run by gangsters.
Donny, who's determined to pitch in the big game against their rival team despite the house arrest, sneaks past an inept deputy (Tom Dugan, uncredited) to get out, but then finds himself a prisoner of Big Jack, who makes a threatening call to the family that is only partially traced. The police use the information they have to comb the multi-block area for Donny. Now the Leeds family is sure they won't testify, again except for Grandpa (who's willing to be the prosecution's "star witness"), who escapes house arrest himself to try to find his missing grandson. Though the story's end is fairly improbable, and you can probably guess what happens, its fast pace and timeless message make this sub-70 minute film worth the investment.
New York Times Review on August 4, 1931
A well-knit melodrama with an effective vein of sentiment came to the Winter Garden screen last night. It bears the title of "The Star Witness" and its narrative is concerned with the intimidation of eye-witnesses to a crime by gangsters. The hero is no handsome youth, but an aged veteran of pact wars who is on forty-eight hours' leave from a soldiers' home. He is named Grandpa Summerville and he is portrayed by Charles (Chic) Sale, who gives a capital characterization.
The wisdom of producing such a film story at this time may be open to discussion, but looking upon it as an entertainment it is highly successful, and, after all, the thugs are brought to bay, chiefly through the efforts of the shrewd and fearless Grandpa Summerville.
The story moves swiftly, but sufficient time is given to an opening sequence to record the humdrum life of the Leeds family. One rather expects that the indolent Jack Leeds may turn out to be a pawn of the gangsters, but a surprise comes when pistol reports and machine-gun fire are heard by Leeds and his family. The noise is at first thought to be the back-firing of an automobile, but when Jack and the others look out of the window they behold the battle going on between rival thugs in two cars.
Walter Huston impersonates District Attorney Whitlock, who reaches the Leeds home shortly after Maxey Campo, the chief gangster, and his underlings have invaded the apartment and have escaped by a rear entrance. Whitlock shows Leeds and his family the rogues' gallery portrait of Campo and they all are quite certain that it is a photograph of the man in an oilskin coat who was seen in one of the automobiles and who later entered their home. They are ready to testify then, but the next day Leeds is accosted by a stranger who says that he is from the District Attorney's office.
Leeds is aghast when he believes that instead of being driven to the District Attorney's office he has been brought to Campo's den. He sticks to his testimony and refuses the bribe of $10,000 offered by the gangster to say that he saw nothing.The witness is beaten unmercifully and eventually reaches his home. Even this might not have cooled the ardor of the other members of the Leeds family in doing their duty as citizens, but Campo kidnaps little Donny Leeds and this influences the parents and also Jack and Sue Leeds in suppressing their testimony.
The stellar witness is Grandpa Summerville. It is he who harangues the adult members of the Leeds family for their reluctance to aid the District Attorney in convicting Campo. They tell the old soldier that he was intoxicated on the night of the gangster feud; but he persists in giving his story before the jury. Perhaps the manner in which he gains information concerning the house in which Donny is held prisoner is a trifle unbelievable. Nevertheless, it is an episode that will meet with favor from audiences, particularly the scenes in which old Summerville plays "Yankee Doodle" on his tin whistle as he wanders around the area in which it is suspected that the child is hidden.
Director: William A. Wellman
Screenplay: Lucien Hubbard
Cinematography: James Van Trees
Film Editing: Harold McLernon
Original Music: Alois Reiser (uncredited)
Principal Cast: Walter Huston (Dist. Atty. Whitlock), Frances Starr (Ma Leeds), Grant Mitchell (Pa Leeds), Sally Blane (Sue Leeds), Edward J. Nugent (Jackie Leeds)
AVI Information
Filename: The Star Witness.avi
Filesize: 706918400 Bytes (674,17 MB)
Streams (i.e. Video, Audio): 2
Video Stream
Compression: xvid - XVID MPEG-4
Avg. Bitrate: 1321,79 kbit/s
Resolution: 640x480
Color Depth: 12 bits
Running Time: 4054,05 s (1h 7m 34s)
Framerate: 23,9760 fps
Microseconds Per Frame: 41708 ms
Frames: 97200
Keyframes: 672 (Every 144)
Audio Stream
Wave Type: 85 - MPEG Layer 3
Avg. Bitrate: 60,48 kbit/s
Sample Rate: 48000 Hz
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Audio Delay: 0,00 s
The Star Witness.avi 
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