Watch I Saw What You Did For Free

What a beautiful movie!

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Overrated

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

By the time 1965 rolled around, William Castle was pretty much out of ideas and gimmicks. "I Saw What You Did" was nearly Castle's last movie and it shows. The only two gimmicks left to the old carny was the warning on the poster for this snoozer: "This picture is about UXORCIDE!!". This is an obscure term for the murder of one's wife. Castle was out of ideas by now, no skeletons on a wire, no punishment poll, no ghost viewers. Only a forgotten term for murder...and Joan Crawford.ISWYD is a movie trapped in it's own time bubble, a look at the hijinks of teenage girls left alone with a telephone for fun and games. Once, telephones only made calls in or out, nothing more. Phone pranks have pretty much gone the way of high-button shoes and horse-drawn carriages. This look back at girls in 1965 is sweet, as well as irritating. Home-alone teens Libby and Kit amuse themselves by making dozens of stupid prank calls, along with prepubescent Tess, Libby's beyond annoying little sister. Using the tag line "I saw what you did and I know who you are" finally hits the jackpot when the two gals inadvertently reach a man who's just murdered his wife. Serious tomfoolery continues until the murderer reaches the girls (don't ask how, it's ludicrous) and lessons are learned.ISWYD is obviously dated and claustrophobic, being filmed entirely on sound stages at Universal. It has the cheap look and feel of a bad TV sitcom. The "outdoor" sets are painfully fake, and one wonders when Mr. Ed or Herman Munster will pop out of the canned fog. There's also a misplaced super perky soundtrack by the heinous Van Alexander who specialized in terrible TV themes and phony "rock and roll". Don't expect tension when bad transistor radio beach party music underscores the action.Which now leads us to the two very sad things about this moldy oldie: the murder of the wife (UXORCIDE!!!, remember?) and Joan Crawford. William Castle was the first to blatantly copy Psycho (1960) with his cross-dressing maniac in Homicidal (1961). ISWYD again wanders onto Hitchcock's lawn with the second "shower murder" of the 60s. This time, however, Castle stages the murder in reverse, where the victim is pulled into the shower and stabbed to death. Castle was really stretching things here. Now, Joan Crawford. Over 60 by this time, she was obviously finishing her contract work with Castle after the campy "Strait-Jacket". Here, Joan is swamped by an enormous hairdo, all swoops and curls embellishing a beehive of gargantuan proportion. Joan is playing an extremely horny neighbor, who is having an affair with the shower murderer, played by John Ireland. Joan isn't in the movie for long, which is good. She appears to be drunk and unable to cope with the gigantic hairdo or the huge tacky necklace that's strangling her. Watching Joan purr and slink around Ireland is about as sexy as watching your grandma get her groove on. We are happy when Joan is killed and her hair deflates. Ireland just looks coarse, nervous, and wondering where his check is. ISWYD is frozen in cheap movie studio set Hell, and isn't worth revisiting unless you want your pleasant memory of this potboiler ruined. The available DVD is pretty pricey for a bare bones presentation if you seek it out. The only thing that could have saved this would have been Mr.Ed rescuing the two silly girls from John Ireland. Ring ring! Wilbur,it's for you!

I Saw What You Did is directed by William Castle and written by William P. McGivern. It stars John Ireland, Joan Crawford, Leif Erickson, Andi Garrett, Sara Lane and Sharyl Locke. Music is by Van Alexander (Joseph Gershenson supervising) and cinematography by Joseph F. Biroc. When two teenagers on babysitting duties decide to have fun making prank phone calls, their evening turns sinister when they call up a man who has just murdered his wife… William Castle was of course better known for his gimmicks than for his ability as a film maker, I Saw What You Did shows the best and worst of the great entertainer. Castle produces and directs this one so is accountable for getting the mix completely wrong. At times the picture is genuinely suspenseful, the premise at the core superb, but at others it feels like it wants to be a comedy, further compounded by Alexander's awful musical score. It's a score that belongs in something like Bewitched or The Munsters, and quite often takes you out of the thriller zone. Castle unsurprisingly borrows off of some films that influenced his career, but aided by McGivern's screenplay he manages to put some different spins on the twisty plot developments. It also helps having Biroc (The Killer that Stalked New York/Cry Danger/The Garment Jungle) on photography duty, he's able to make Castle's fog scenes appear icy cold, to blend the shadows into the story like foreboding prowlers. Cast wise the elder cast members aren't stretching themselves here, with Crawford working for food and Ireland on auto-pilot, but the younger actors are great fun and really nail that naivety of youth thing to the max. All told it's a fun film, if not always for the right reasons. With some Castle invention (eyelet vision?!) and steals – and Biroc on form, there's more than enough here to compensate for the confusing mix of genres. 6/10

I Saw What You Did is an odd mix of different styles. It starts out lighthearted and slightly goofy with 2 girls making plans to meet up for the evening. It alternates between melodrama, horror and silliness not sure what direction to go or unsure of what it wants to be. Does it want to be super scary? There are scenes that are very creepy and that hold your attention. Or does it want to be a harmless, made-for-TV tepid drama? Much of it seems this way. Or is it a murder mystery? That never really comes to fruition. It can be exasperating for sure. Just when it get's going it loses steam and leaves one frustrated. Joan Crawford displays her controlling, overbearing self in this. It's odd to see her behave this way after all the stories about her. Here she is drinking and trying to control her man. I wish I could say very positive things about this but it's disappointing. It could have been much better.

Ah White Castle movies!! Known for their great hamburgers and bad horror flicks! It was such one weekend night---nothing on the Cable TV except this one unknown Joan Crawford flick.---So being a Joanie C fan starring in a movie that I never heard of "I Saw What You Did" I decided what the heck! I'll check it out. Despite my suspicions, I thought it was a not bad suspenseful black and white drive in flick.First, the plot, Libby a average everyday teenager with her little sister spend the weekend alone while Mom and Dad go out of town. Oh! Libby asks a friend to come over to study with. So what do the studious pair of teenagers do when Mom and Dad leave. They put on some records on the phonograph (no CD's---this is a movie from the 50's) grab the junk food and make those stupid prank phone calls to people like the Old ones---"Is your refrigerator running---I just saw it run down the street" Well, as Murphy's Law goes---one of the phone calls made was to a psychopath who just murdered his wife. And telling the psycho husband over the phone "I saw what you did and I know who you are" is NOT a wise idea!! Furthermore...flirting with the nut (who flirts back to the girls because he wants to know who they are) is not a good idea neither. and further bad luck....The psycho has a jealous girlfriend neighbor (Joan Crawford) who witnesses the conversation and thinks he is carrying on more affairs beside her. More bad luck, Libby is intrigued by the flirtatious creep and actually drives over to the house to see what he looks like. Our jealous girlfriend neighbor catches them,chases them off and gets their address information (where it eventually lands in the hands of the psychopath) and NOW the phone has hit the fan!! Joan Crawford's appearance in the film is very slight but the billing is big. The film moves very good for a low budget horror. There are also plenty of scenes that are made to jump out at the audience. I won't reveal what happens next but the suspense will keep you on the edge of your seat and the acting is not that bad. I would advise any dreamy eyed talkative teenager to see the film about the dangers of prank calling and meeting people over the phone or internet.