Night Watch (1973 film)

Night Watch is a 1973 mystery thriller film directed by Brian G. Hutton from a screenplay by Tony Williamson, based on the 1972 play of the same name by Lucille Fletcher. The film reunited Elizabeth Taylor with co-star Laurence Harvey from their 1960 collaboration BUtterfield 8. It was the last time the pair acted together on screen. Some of the story elements recall the plot outline of the 1944 film Gaslight.

Plot
In London, during a raging thunderstorm one night, Ellen Wheeler frantically tells her husband, John, that from the living-room window, she has seen a man with his throat slit in a chair by the window in the large, old, deserted house across the way. John calls the police, but a search of the old house finds no evidence of a murder.

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, and suggests that the body of the murder victim she witnessed may be buried there. Inspector Walker questions the reclusive neighbour, Mr. Appleby, 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 recovering from a nervous breakdown that occurred after her unfaithful first husband, Carl, was killed a few years earlier in an auto accident with his young paramour, while suffering from recurring nightmares of the accident. After learning that Ellen has called Inspector Walker multiple times about the investigation, John suggests that she see his psychiatrist friend, Tony. Indignant, Ellen continues to insist that she saw a murder in the deserted house, but since there is no proof, John remains sceptical.

Ellen's visiting friend Sarah Cooke is equally sceptical, suggesting that Ellen sees what she thinks she sees because of her recent breakdown. That night, when both Ellen and Sarah see a light moving behind the old house's shutters, they call the police, who discover 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 privately tells John that the case is officially closed.

That evening, Ellen claims to John and Sarah that she saw another body in the old house, that of a woman. Ellen is then sedated by John and Sarah, who believe that Ellen may be losing her mind. The next day, Ellen agrees to see Tony and, during their conversation, recounts Carl's fatal car accident. Tony advises her to check into a clinic in Switzerland for a few weeks, to which Ellen agrees. Shortly afterwards, Ellen calls Inspector Walker and urges him to search the old house again. After falsely promising to do so, he reveals that the house was purchased six months earlier by a private company, DIPCO.

The following evening, as Ellen prepares to depart for Switzerland, John asks her to sign several financial documents, including one that grants him power of attorney over their financial holdings. She complies, before noticing in the documents that John had recently acquired DIPCO. Ellen angrily accuses John and Sarah of having an affair and plotting to torment her in order to have her committed, showing him the key to the old house. When John denies Ellen's accusations, she runs to the old house and lets herself inside using the key; John and Sarah both chase after her. Ellen lures the two to the second-floor room where she claimed to have seen the bodies. There, she slashes John's throat and viciously stabs Sarah to death, before positioning them in exactly the same manner that she claimed to have seen the two bodies.

It is revealed that Ellen had feigned insanity by claiming to have witnessed two murders in the old house as part of an elaborate scheme to murder both John and Sarah for their affair, and to so weary the police with her repeated phone calls in order to dissuade them from investigating the house and finding the bodies of John and Sarah. Mr. Appleby, whose father owned John and Ellen's house before they purchased it, makes a surprise visit, startling Ellen and congratulating her on pulling off her scheme. He assures her that he does not intend to report the murders, as Inspector Walker would not believe him. Ellen asks Mr. Appleby to look after her house and the garden until she returns. Mr. Appleby happily agrees as Ellen bids him goodbye and departs.

Production
Night Watch was based on the play of the same name by Lucille Fletcher, starring Joan Hackett. The play opened in February 1972. The New York Times called it "a most excellent thriller... a first class example of its genre".

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 Fabergé Company, run by George Barrie. It was one of the first films from that company. Poll said, "It's really a lot more now than a suspense story. It deals with the relationship between people torn by their emotions, their betrayals and jealousies."

It was decided to relocate the story to England. The film was shot at Elstree Studios in London. Brut financed the film entirely, with Taylor taking a smaller salary in exchange for a larger percentage. Director Brian G. Hutton had just made X Y & Zee (1972) with Taylor. Harvey's casting was announced in April 1972. Barrie would later finance Harvey's last film, Welcome to Arrow Beach (1974).

Filming was interrupted several times. It shut down for a week when Hutton contracted bronchitis, and then later for six more weeks so Harvey could have an operation on his stomach. Harvey said at the time that the operation was due to appendicitis, but it was in fact stomach cancer, which would kill him shortly after the picture was released. Filming wrapped in September 1972.

Although Barrie and John Cameron composed the musical score of the film, and Cameron was credited for it, the background music for a significant part of the film is Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 and Schubert's Unfinished Symphony.

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

Critical reception
Time Out called it a "tired, old-fashioned thriller"; whereas The New York Times wrote, "Elizabeth Taylor, and about time, has got herself a good picture and a whodunit at that"; 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".