''Eyewitness '' (released in the UK as ''The Janitor'') is a 1981 American

neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating ...

Silver, Alain; Ward, Elizabeth; eds. (1992). ''Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style'' (3rd ed.). Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press.

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

produced and directed by

Peter Yates Peter James Yates (24 July 1929 – 9 January 2011) was an English film director and producer. Biography Early life Yates was born in Aldershot, Hampshire. The son of an army officer, he attended Charterhouse School as a boy, graduated from ...

and written by Steve Tesich. It stars

William Hurt William McChord Hurt (March 20, 1950 – March 13, 2022) was an American actor. Known for his performances on stage and screen, he received various awards including an Academy Award, BAFTA Award and Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor. H ...

Sigourney Weaver Susan Alexandra "Sigourney" Weaver (; born October 8, 1949) is an American actress. A figure in science fiction and popular culture, she has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Gramm ...

Christopher Plummer Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer (December 13, 1929 – February 5, 2021) was a Canadian actor. His career spanned seven decades, gaining him recognition for his performances in film, stage, and television. He received multiple accolades, inc ...

, and

James Woods James Howard Woods (born April 18, 1947) is an American actor. He is known for his work in various film, stage, and television productions. He started his career in minor roles on and off- Broadway. In 1972, he appeared in ''The Trial of the ...

. The story involves a television news reporter and a janitor who team to solve a murder.

Plot

New York City janitor Daryll Deever is an avid fan of television news reporter Toni Sokolow. A wealthy Vietnamese man suspected of criminal connections is murdered in Daryll's office building, and Toni suspects Deever knows something about it. She keeps after him for information, a pursuit Daryll allows because he is romantically interested in Toni, and a "cat and mouse" game ensues. This convinces the real killers that Daryll does know vital information about the murder, so he and Toni end up with their lives in danger over this false assumption.

Cast

as Daryll Deever *

as Antonia "Toni" Sokolow *

as Joseph *

as Alan “Aldo” Mercer *

Irene Worth Irene Worth, CBE (June 23, 1916March 10, 2002) was an American stage and screen actress who became one of the leading stars of the British and American theatre. She pronounced her given name with three syllables: "I-REE-nee". Worth made her Br ...

as Mrs. Sokolow * Kenneth McMillan as Mr. Deever * Pamela Reed as Linda Mercer *

Albert Paulsen Albert Paulsen (born Albert Paulson; 13 December 1925 in Guayaquil, Ecuador – 25 April 2004 in Los Angeles, California) was an Ecuadorian-American actor who appeared in many American television series beginning in the 1960s, playing chara ...

as Mr. Sokolow *

Steven Hill Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...

as Lt. Jacobs *

Morgan Freeman Morgan Freeman (born June 1, 1937) is an American actor, director, and narrator. He is known for his distinctive deep voice and various roles in a wide variety of film genres. Throughout his career spanning over five decades, he has received ...

as Lt. Black *

Alice Drummond Alice Elizabeth Drummond (née Ruyter, May 21, 1928 – November 30, 2016) was an American actress. A veteran Off-Broadway performer, she was nominated in 1970 for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance as Mrs ...

as Mrs. Eunice Deever *

Chao-Li Chi Chao-Li Chi (; April 5, 1927 – October 16, 2010) was a Chinese-born American actor and dancer who worked extensively in American television, including his best known role as Chao-Li, the faithful majordomo and chauffeur of Jane Wyman's charac ...

as Mr. Long * Keone Young as Mr. Long's son

Production

The news equipment and promotional posters actually belonged to a real television station in New York City, then-

Metromedia Metromedia (also often MetroMedia) was an American media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and controlled Orion Pictures from 1988 to 1997. Metromedia was established in 1956 after the DuMon ...

owned

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

WNEW-TV. Two then-station employees, news anchor

John Roland John Roland (born 1941) is an American former news presenter and reporter. Career Roland is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania native who graduated from California State University at Long Beach in 1964; he began his broadcasting career in the 1960s. His ...

and sportscaster

Bill Mazer Bill Mazer (born Morris Mazer; November 2, 1920 – October 23, 2013) was an American television and radio personality. He won numerous awards and citations, including three National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association's Sportscaster of ...

, made cameo appearances in the film. Sigourney Weaver, whose father

Sylvester "Pat" Weaver Sylvester Laflin "Pat" Weaver Jr. (December 21, 1908 – March 15, 2002) was an American broadcasting executive who was president of NBC between 1953 and 1955. He has been credited with reshaping commercial broadcasting's format and philosophy ...

had been a top network television executive, also worked for the station in order to gain experience. Both WNEW-TV (now Fox-owned-and-operated

WNYW WNYW (channel 5) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside Secaucus, New Jersey–licensed MyNetworkTV flagsh ...

) and the film were under the corporate umbrella of 21st Century Fox until March 20, 2019, when Fox closed on its sale of its entertainment assets, including the film, to The Walt Disney Company. Producer-director

and screenwriter Steve Tesich had collaborated two years earlier on the film ''

Breaking Away ''Breaking Away'' is a 1979 American coming of age comedy-drama film produced and directed by Peter Yates and written by Steve Tesich. It follows a group of four male teenagers in Bloomington, Indiana, who have recently graduated from high sc ...

''. ''

Hum To Mohabbat Karega ''Hum To Mohabbat Karega'' (transl. ''I Will Love He Always'') is a 2000 Indian Hindi thriller-comedy film. It was the first time Bobby Deol and Karisma Kapoor were paired. This film was inspired by the 1981 American film '' Eyewitness''. The ri ...

'', a 2000

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" ...

thriller-comedy film starring

Karishma Kapoor Karisma Kapoor (born 25 June 1974) is an Indian actress, who works in Hindi films. A member of the Kapoor family, she is the recipient of several accolades, including a National Film Award and four Filmfare Awards. Kapoor made her acting de ...

and

Bobby Deol Vijay Singh Deol (born 27 January 1967) popularly known as Bobby Deol, is an Indian actor who works in Hindi cinema and web series. A member of the Deol family, he is the younger son of veteran actor Dharmendra. His accolades include a Filmf ...

, was inspired by ''Eyewitness''.

References

External links

* * * * * * 1980s mystery thriller films 1981 films American mystery thriller films Films directed by Peter Yates 20th Century Fox films Films about journalists Films set in New York City American neo-noir films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films {{mystery-film-stub