Customer Reviews

I Saw What You Did [VHS]

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I gave this movie five stars not because it is an Oscar-quality classic - far from it - but because it succeeds on its own terms. It is scary - very, very scary. (If you watch it at night, I dare you to go to sleep without double-checking that the doors are locked!) The over-the-top performances, particularly Joan Crawford's, are also unintentionally funny. It works because the camp does not diminish the fright and the scares do not get in the way of the hilarity.

Why is this movie so scary? Others have mentioned the isolated farmhouse, the hazy atmosphere, the feeling of being alone, and the naiveté of the girls. Although some have criticized the teen-age actors, I think the story holds together because Libby and Kit's silly behavior (trying to appear sophisticated while really looking childish) is believable of 15-year-old girls then and now. Crawford, as a domineering neighbor, adds the camp. The slam-the-car-door scene is priceless! And have you ever seen a made-for-horror-movies necklace like the one Joan wears here?

This is not a movie which could be made effectively now (a poor remake was made in 1988) because the plot devices demand a 1960s-type telephone system. Today, a parent calling up to check on a child could almost always ring through on "call waiting"; ripping a telephone out of a wall is meaningless in the age of cell phones; and "Caller ID" and "Call Return" should make phony phone calls a thing of the past. Even at the time, it required viewers to suspend logic to believe that Mrs. Mannering, hearing non-stop busy signals, would not demand an "emergency cut in," which did exist at the time, or that this middle-class family lacked an extension phone. But these are minor nits.

The letterbox version now being sold is excellent. Make sure you see the trailers before and, especially, after the film. If you like this film, you will also like Strait Jacket, another Castle-Crawford pairing.

If you want chilling, hilarious fun, this is most definitely entertainment at it's CAMPIEST best! Joan Crawford, as 'Amy', is totally filmed through gauze to soften the effects of her hard living & hard drinking years in Hollywood. Be sure to catch the scene where she is serving a cocktail & almost falls on her face! (And it wasn't even edited out! ) Notice the scene where she slams the car door & her beehive hairdo literally falls apart! When she screams, "Get outta here!", her voice sounds like an outraged truckdriver! The overacting is just priceless - every scene is better than the one before! Her long, dramatic death scene is done to the hilt! This is 'Mommie Dearest' to the MAX! I love this movie! Get out the popcorn, mix the cocktails, & get ready to be scared & to LAUGH your head off! We love you, William Castle! I give this film 5 Wire Hangers! It's absolutely TERRIFIC!

In the days before caller ID when I was in my early teens, my friends and I would sometimes fight boredom by making prank phone calls: "Is your refrigerator running?", that sort of thing. That was when I first saw this movie on TV, so it really hit close to home. Did it teach me any lessons? Not unless you include a few new phone ideas, but it did give me a favorite guilty pleasure movie. After over 20 years of waiting it's finally on home video. Some of the humor and acting seem a little dated now, but most of the suspense scenes are very intense even by today's standards, and it's as much fun to watch as ever.

My sister and I saw this at a Saturday matinee over 30 years ago. I was never so scared in my life. Two images that will FOREVER stay in my mind are when the killer is looking in the window and the girl sees him in a mirror...and then when she's trying to start the car...oh my goodness! I have not seen the DVD, but had purchased the video. It is much easier to watch now, but that scene of him peeking in the window still weirds me out!! Of course, it's pretty comical watching it now. But in its day it was pretty darn scary!!

This movie shows how an innocent prank can turn into horror if you do it to the wrong person.Even though the acting was a little weak(the 2 teenage girls),it was suspenseful.The shower scene was too much of a copy from psycho,but it did have some good moments.I loved the funky 60's music and there were some funny prank calls they made,my favorite was to Mr.Burger when the girl said, " I'm hungry, can I eat you".Buy this movie!!

Producer/Director William Castle will always be remembered as a "B" level showman renowned for getting his best thrills in his movies through cheap tricks like wiring theatre seats with light electricity or dangling skeletons over audiences during the screenings in a feeble attempt to increase the "thrill factor". However I believe he has often been unfairly dismissed in his movie output and could on occasion produce interestingly original work in his movies. His highly effective "The Night Walker" starring Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Taylor from 1965 comes to mind as fitting this category. 1965 also found him working off another interesting premise to create an entertaining and well acted little thriller in "I Saw What You Did". Admittedly the film is no masterpiece however it does succeed in its 80 or so minutes running time to create quite suspensful viewing. The idea of a prank phone call going terribly wrong and leading to a potentially deadly situation might not seem very original however here it is handled in a manner that allows the tension to slowly build and then mushrooms into a fast moving and tense climax. Castle was aided greatly here by a terrific cast headed by top billed veteran actress Joan Crawford who actually has a smaller role than the billing would suggest. Reteamed here with her old "Queen Bee" costar John Ireland this thriller would sadly prove to be Joan's last American film with her last two efforts being made in England. She however more than makes up for her limited screen time by totally dominating the action in her scenes making her role seem larger than it actually is. The cast includes an interesting mixture of veterans and complete new comers and they work extremely well together on what was obviously a small budget and limited production schedule. These limitations however work in the stories favour keeping the story moving at a satisfying pace with not alot of character development going on. Even the black and white photography, obviously chosen for budgetry reasons, proves highly effective here in creating just the right mood where so much of the story takes place on an eerie fog shroud night in an isolated country area.

William Castle (the movie "gimmick-meister") brought to the screen in July of 1965 a film entitled "I Saw What You Did", starring an aging Joan Crawford (who was 61). This was one of Joan's last pictures, and she proves here she still had what it takes (albeit, in this film, in a somewhat humorous and over-the-top fashion).

The premise of this movie is a clever one -- two teenaged girls begin playing a telephone "game", where they call people at random out of the phone book and inform them "I saw what you did ... and I know who you are!"

This "game" takes a realistic twist when (as fate would have it) one of the "victims" of the girls' prank turns out to have committed a murder just minutes before the call. A dangerous game indeed.

The two young girls are played by Andi Garrett and Sarah Lane. They aren't exactly in Miss Crawford's class, acting-wise, but I liked both of them in this movie very much. They just seemed to have a "real" quality to them that came through on screen. Interestingly, this was Andi Garrett's *only* film appearance ever. And Sarah Lane appeared in just one other film besides this one (which was a made-for-TV movie).

Anchor Bay and Universal give us this black-and-white film on DVD in a good-looking Widescreen presentation (1.78:1), with a robust-enough Mono soundtrack. The transfer here is not "Anamorphic", but it looks like one nonetheless, displaying a very clear picture with little in the way of any video distractions.

Not many, but a few, Bonus Features occupy space on this one-disc DVD edition. There's the Original Trailer for the film, plus a "Teaser Trailer", which features Director William Castle's "World Premiere Announcement" for this little chiller/thriller.

Also on the disc are some text-only "Talent Bios" (for Crawford and Castle). The Bio section for Miss Crawford is very nice, too -- featuring a multitude of text screens covering her vast career. Many vintage photos of the actress are also included on the bio text screens.

A one-page (two-sided) insert comes in this Keepcased package. This is one of the nicer single-page DVD enclosures, being made from a thicker cardboard than most flimsier paper inserts. A listing of the movie's 20 "Chapters" is on one side; while a reproduction of an original lobby card (or poster) for the film is shown on the other side of the insert.

"I Saw What You Did" certainly isn't the best or scariest flick you'll ever see. But it has a certain atmospheric "charm" to it that definitely places it within the "worth a look" category.

The DVD includes the original trailer as well as a brief promo that Vincent Castle did for the movie. "I Saw What You Did" shows what happens when you make too many prank phone calls! I love this movie because it's so funny. These kids in this film are so totally silly. And everyone was so polite. What's up with that? Were people really like this in the 1960's? As usual Joan was perfect. My favorite scene was the one where she went nuts on Libby and chased her all the way back to the car. It was so funny, I thought Joan was going to have a heart attack. Rock on.

That's what the poster ads warned! UXORICIDE! (look it up). William Castle's "I Saw What You Did" is a great little suspense drama, with a perky cast and an intriguing story. Left alone one night while their parents are out of town, teen-aged Libby, her little sister Tess, and Libby's visiting friend Kit amuse themselves by making crank phone calls. They especially enjoy crooning "I saw what you did and I know who you are" to their victims. Unfortunately, one of their calls hits the bullseye--a homicidal maniac who has just murdered his wife. Tense and atmospheric, with delightful performances from Andi Garrett, Sarah Lane and Sharyl Locke as the kids, and strong ones from John Ireland as the psychopath, and the one-and-only Joan Crawford (straight from Castle's "Strait-Jacket") as his blackmail-minded neighbor. The 1988 television remake is terrible. Avoid it and stick with the original! [phillindholm]

This is one of those bad movies Joan Crawford made toward the end of her career. But her fans needn't feel any embarrassment here (as we do in the case of TROG) for I SAW WHAT YOU DID is simply light, tongue-in-cheek entertainment that will leave you chuckling over its sheer absurdity. Joan's performance here is a serious contender for her all-time worst, but it's funny-bad. Whether you love Joan or hate her, you'll laugh out loud when she catches that young girl snooping around John Ireland's house and commands her again and again to "GET OUT OF HERE! " Only problem is, a viewer unfamiliar with Joan's otherwise excellent work may wind up thinking she took acting lessons from Wile E. Coyte.

The letterboxing is welcome; however, John Castle doesn't exactly have Fellini's or Antonioni's artistic eye.

Bubba