I SAW WHAT YOU DID (1965)

A drink before death: John Ireland; Joan Crawford

I SAW WHAT YOU DID (1965). Produced and directed by William Castle. Colorized.  

Two teenage girls -- Libby (Andi Garrett) and Kit (Sara Lane), plus Libby's younger sister, Tess (Sharyl Locke) -- play a foolish phone game where they either call up and pretend to be a man's mistress (a rather cruel thing to do to the wife) or say "I saw what you did and I know who you are." This causes consternation in one Steve Marak (John Ireland), who has just finished slaughtering his wife, Judith (Joyce Meadows of The Girl in Lover's Lane). The girls drive by Steve's house to see what he looks like, whereupon Libby is violently accosted by Steve's jealous neighbor, Amy (Joan Crawford), who has a hankering for Steve that stays just as strong even after she figures out what he did. Steve discovers that killing is easy for him, and decides to see just what Libby knows about what happened. Just as she's convinced him that she really knows nothing, the truth comes out and the murderous chase is on ... 

Joyce Meadows standing in for Janet Leigh

I Saw What You Did, while not one of Castle's best films, is still better than I remembered it. Despite the fact that the film seems geared for teens, the most interesting sequence is when Castle attempts to duplicate the Psycho shower murder -- which he didn't even do in his Psycho rip-off Homicidal -- when Marak murders Judith. Judith approaches the shower stall where Steven is apparently showering, then he suddenly opens the door, pulls her in, and stabs her repeatedly, finally pushing her out through -- and shattering -- the glass shower door. This is all effective enough, but hardly as cinematic as the scene in Psycho -- Castle's shower murder has only 24 shots. 

Lane, Locke, and Garrett

Crawford gives her customary authoritative performance in this, and one suspects her character was probably not in the novel the film was based on, but was inserted to give Crawford some marquee value. Although Ireland gives one of his better performances, he radiates little actual menace. (Crawford and Ireland also appeared together in Queen Bee, in which the former also lusted for the latter.) Lane and Garrett, introduced in this film, give good performances, and little Sharyl Locke is adorable as Tess. (None of the three went on to have long careers, however.) Others in the cast include Patricia Breslin of Homicidal and Leif Erickson of Strait-Jacket as Libby's parents, and John Archer of Destination Moon as Kit's father. Russ Bender has a bit as a police sergeant. I Saw What You Did is entertaining and fast-moving enough, but it's also a bit "cutesy" and Van Alexander's terrible score is absolutely no help. 

Verdict: Crawford gives it a touch of class. **3/4.