A police thriller, EYEWITNESS TO MURDER plays the genre conventions by the numbers, and the result is undistinguished, even for a direct-to-video production.
Artist Suzanne Copeland's (Sherilyn Wolter) gallery opening turns into a nightmare when she sees the vicious murder of her dealer. She's blinded in the attack, and Lieutenant Page (Andrew Stevens) and his new partner, Sergeant Tyler (Adrian Zmed), are assigned to the case. They hide her in a
deserted hospital wing and enlist martial arts trained nurse Rebecca Ellison (Karen Elise Baldwin) to help protect her. After one attempt on Suzanne's life, Page defies his superiors and takes matters into his own hands: Haunted by the memory of the botched Baxter case, during which his wife was
killed, he's determined never again to fail anyone who's relying on him for protection.
Page, Rebecca, and Tyler take Suzanne to Page's isolated house, and while Rebecca helps Suzanne adapt to her blindness, Page begins to fall in love with his reluctant witness. He also persuades Suzanne to try to sculpt the likeness of the man she saw. Page discovers evidence that the murder is
linked to the Baxter case, and realizes that he's up against corruption within the department itself. Sergeant Breslin (Carl Strano), whom Page trusts implicitly, turns out to be the hitman; he's working for Captain Sullivan (Ed Beimfohr), who was promoted at Page's expense in the fallout after
the Baxter case. Breslin kills Tyler and comes gunning for Page and Suzanne. He murders Ellison and shoots Page; Suzanne fights him off and the wounded Page kills him.
Promoted as "from the producer, director & star of NIGHT EYES," EYEWITNESS TO MURDER is an ordinary police thriller with nothing much to distinguish it from score of similar film and, unlike the popular direct-to-video NIGHT EYES series, can in no way be described as an erotic thriller. The
production values are no better than adequate, as are the performances from exploitation regulars Andrew Stevens and Adrian Zmed; co-star Karen Baldwin, who receives an "introducing" credit, is also listed as co-author of the film's story. Though director Jag Mundhra, who had four films released
in 1993--EYEWITNESS TO MURDER, WILD CACTUS, TROPICAL HEAT, and THE OTHER WOMAN--is reported to have broken into filmmaking as one of the adult movie producer/director team known as the Dark Brothers (exploitation producer/director Gregory Hippolyte was the other; they were responsible for such
notable films as LET ME TELL YA ABOUT WHITE CHICKS and NEW WAVE HOOKERS), his recent work has been standard low-budget fare, neither better nor worse than average. (Violence, sexual situations.) leave a comment
