Key Witness (1947 film)

Key Witness is a 1947 American film noir crime film directed by D. Ross Lederman and starring John Beal, Trudy Marshall and Jimmy Lloyd.

Plot
A man runs away to avoid suspicion of murder and ends up in more trouble.

Cast

 * John Beal as Milton Higby
 * Trudy Marshall as Marge Andrews
 * Jimmy Lloyd as Larry Summers
 * Helen Mowery as Sally Guthrie
 * Wilton Graff as Albert Loring
 * Barbara Read as Martha Higby
 * Charles Trowbridge as John Ballin
 * Harry Hayden as Custer Bidwell

Critical response
When the film was released in 1947, critic Bosley Crowther, was sly in his negative review, "The moral of Key Witness, which came to the Rialto yesterday, it says, is that 'no man can escape trouble by trying to run away from it.' This wisdom is demonstrated in the adventures of a desperate young man who attempts to get out of one involvement by changing his identity—and runs into others thereby ... There might also be drawn this moral from the evidence presented here: you can't often be sure of entertainment from that which is claimed to be."