Review of I Saw What You Did (1965) by Dr. Jack G — 30 May 2011

This was another one of those 'Psycho' knock offs except there's no twist in the end. You do get a nice shower scene that is obviously 'Psycho' inspired. William Castle always tried to top that film, but his infectious humor in his films can never be compared to Hitchcock's. In fact they're somewhat better for the gimmicks that he inserts in films like 'The Tingler' or 'I Saw What You Did'.

The gimmick for this is prank calls and how three young girls are taught a lesson while getting the crap scared out of them. Libby has the house to herself for the night as her parents are away. She is stuck having to babysit her annoying little sister Tess, a mischievous little girl with a spunky nature. Libby calls her friend Kitt to come over and so she does. As the girls get bored they start prank calling people and one of the calls is to a man named Steve Marak.

A woman answers the phone, she goes to get Steve only to be stabbed. The neighbor, Amy, played by Joan Crawford, is Steve's lover and a jealous one at that. She and Steve want to start a life together and with Steve's wife out of the way so to speak they can do that, but Amy is unaware of the murder of his wife and starts to get suspicious when Steve is chatting with whom she believes to be another woman named Susette.

It's actually the three stooges, Libby, Kitt and Tess. Libby rings up Steve's house once again to give the line 'I Saw what you did, and I know who you are." What does she mean? Could she have seen him dispose his wife's body in the woods? No. It's just three bored girls. This gimmick sets up Steve to desperately hunt for the voice on the phone. It's a particularly eerie and sometimes thrilling display of the be careful who you mess with genre. The cast is a likeable bunch. Joan Crawford, a major star, gets slain half way through the film though which is another one of the 'Psycho' inspired events. Not a bad thing, but it's always too obvious how much Castle is in love with that film.