A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Featuring:
Walter Huston, Frances Starr, Grant Mitchell
Written by:
Lucien Hubbard
Bud Barsky
Directed by:
William A. Wellman
Release Date:
August 22, 1931
Original Title:
The Star Witness
Genres:
Crime | Drama
Production Companies:
The Vitaphone Corporation
Warner Bros. Pictures
Production Countries:
United States of America
Ratings / Certifications:
US: NR
Runtime: 68
A tough District Attorney goes after a murderous crime gang, only to find that his witnesses, an innocent family, have clammed up in fear of reprisals.
The Leeds family is thrown right in the middle of a war between the cops and gangland when they are the only witnesses to two murders committed by gang kingpin Maxey Campos. Initially positive in their identification of the murderer, their attitudes change when young Donny Leeds is kidnapped by Campos' boys. No amount of threatening with perjury by D.A. Whitlock can get them to tell the truth - except for cantankerous old Grandpa, civil war veteran, who berates his family for failing to do their civic duty, whatever the cost. Though having his doubts as to the credibility of his star witness, Whitlock is nevertheless taken aback when he learns Grandpa has disappeared just before he is to testify.
Internet Movie Database | 6.2/10 |
---|---|
Awards Won: | Nominated for 1 Oscar. 1 nomination total |
Art Direction:
John Hughes
Assistant Camera:
Vernon Larson
Assistant Director:
Frank Shaw
Dialogue:
Lucien Hubbard
Director:
William A. Wellman
Director of Photography:
James Van Trees
Editor:
Harold McLernon
Hairstylist:
Lucille D'Antoine
Makeup Artist:
Perc Westmore
Music:
Alois Reiser
Music Director:
Leo F. Forbstein
Writer:
Lucien Hubbard
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Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
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Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.