Mute Witness (1995)

Director Anthony Waller, if famous for anything, is known for directing one of the most worthless and embarrassing sequels ever: An American Werewolf in Paris.  In some ways it's a shot-by-shot retelling of John Landis's classic horror comedy An American Werewolf in London, only changing it to Paris and using crappy CGI rather than state-of-the-art practical effects.  

What got him the chance to direct what a major studio mistakenly thought was a sequel people were asking for - despite the original movie not ever calling for one - was a low-budget film he made in Moscow not long after the fall of the Soviet Union.  This was during the time of Boris Yeltsin and a period of extreme social upheaval in Russia where the country was almost lawless and, in some respects, run by organized crime.  It was also a brief time period when the country was becoming more open and welcoming to the West and, like a number of other former Eastern Bloc countries, presented cheaper opportunities in which to make a movie than Hollywood. 

Andy Clarke (Evan Richards) is making a cheap slasher at a film studio in Moscow.  Most of the crew is Russian, requiring translators as well as dealing with local unions and such, many of which frustrate him.  Andy is joined by his wife Karen (Fay Ripley) and his sister-in-law Billy (Marina Zudina).  Billy happens to handle the makeup and effects and, due to a birth defect, is mute.  Because she is unable to signal the building's maintenance man (Nikolai Pastukhov) she ends up locked in the studio overnight after going back to get a mask she is working on.

While trying to find an exit she witnesses the production's cameraman Lyosha (Sergei Karlenkov) making what she initially believes to be a pornographic film, but which leads to the murder of a blonde woman by lighting director Arkadi (Igor Volkov).  They become aware that someone is in the building and Billy desperately tries to escape, finally getting in touch with Karen and Andy.  They call the police but, initially, it appears that Lyosha and Arkadi have cleaned up everything to make it look like it was a misunderstanding.  However, her danger doesn't end there, as the pair's boss demands that Billy be killed to tie up loose ends.  They attempt, but a special investigator for the Moscow police named Larsen (Oleg Yankovskiy) intervenes.  It appears that a man known only as the Reaper (Alec Guinness) is searching for a diskette with incriminating information and Larsen needs Billy's help.  However, at this point, it is unclear who she should trust. 

It is a complicated plot that borrows a lot from classic thrillers including Wait Until Dark, with the victim changed from a blind woman to a mute.  It also feels like an amalgamation of a number of Alfred Hitchcock movies.  Zudina manages to carry this with her physical acting, while Karlenkov and Volkov are effective villains.  Guinness's part is small and credited as a "Mystery Guest Star".  It was filmed in Germany in 1985 as a quick favor for Waller as long as Guinness was uncredited and no promotion was done stating that he was in the film.  The movie also has a healthy dose of comedy to cut through some of the bleakness. 

Mute Witness turns out to be a rather entertaining film as a result, with two major set pieces - one in the studio, one in Billy's apartment - broken up by police investigations and typical Hitchcockian hijinks.  It has a fair share of intricate plotting that one has to pay attention to.  Some of it works, some of it gets a bit plodding, and throughout it all Evan Richards plays an unbearably whiny man-child that almost brings things to a crashing halt every time he is on screen.  Uneven pacing, as well as the lack of any promotion, contributed to this not even making a blip at the box office.

Still, Mute Witness has plenty going for it to the point that it has been rediscovered over the years and after having gathered much of its audience due to video rentals.  Although derivative it is sad that more budding filmmakers don't go back to this well as they used to. 

Mute Witness (1995)

Time: 95 minutes

Starring: Marina Zudina, Evan Richards, Fay Ripley, Oleg Yankovskiy, Sergei Karlenkov, Igor Volkov

Director: Anthony Waller