Theater: Right Honorable Chump

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Hostile Witness, by Jack Roffey. The most convincing corpse in this suspense drama is the play. Playwright Roffey may not know much about thrillers, but he certainly can throw a cataleptic trance.

The chief sleepwalker is a distinguished barrister (Ray Milland), in the dock on a murder rap for killing a judge. Milland had threatened to kill the man responsible for the hit-and-run death of his daughter, and the judge was a bum driver—certainly enough circumstantial evidence to suit anybody. After a lifetime of scrutinizing the criminal mind, Milland is such a right honorable chump that he harbors on his own staff an ex-con who spent 15 years preparing the frame-up to revenge himself on both judge and barrister. Enough clues turn up at the Old Bailey to fill a telephone book, and leafing through them is just as exciting.

It is difficult to know where the courtroom's wood paneling leaves off and Ray Milland begins. His supporting cast may be actors or still lifes. That fine old comic stager Melville Cooper is immured on the bench and reduced to clearing his throat. Still, he is spared dialogue like "Now, perhaps, you'll listen to reason," "Dammit, the police aren't fools," or "Where the carrion is, there will vultures be gathered."

Except when standing the court to order and swearing in witnesses, the court usher keeps his eyes resolutely closed throughout the evening. It is the best way to see this play.