23 PACES TO BAKER STREET plays like a riff on REAR WINDOW. An ordinary man thinks he's witnessed a crime (or in this case, the premediation of a crime) and enlists the help of his estranged girlfriend and an older helpmate to solve it. However, instead of being confined to a wheelchair, the protagonist is newly blinded and must rely on his other senses to solve the mystery.
Van Johnson's impression of blindness is a bit shaky (sometimes he plays up the newly blind angle, while at others he acts like a man who's used to his impairment) but he never aims for easy maudlin pathos, which is nice-- in fact, both the script and Johnson take a risk in making him so unpalatable at times that he risks losing audience sympathy, but it makes the character interesting, especially when the crime-solving revives his joie de vivre.
As for the crime elements, there isn't much in the way of urgency or danger for about 90% of the runtime, which keeps the movie from being truly nail-biting, but 23 PACES is more about the foggy, old-school London atmosphere than blowing your mind with a complex, clever plot. There's a weird coziness to the story and characters, giving it a different vibe from the ironic cool of Hitchcock's work.
Van Johnson's impression of blindness is a bit shaky (sometimes he plays up the newly blind angle, while at others he acts like a man who's used to his impairment) but he never aims for easy maudlin pathos, which is nice-- in fact, both the script and Johnson take a risk in making him so unpalatable at times that he risks losing audience sympathy, but it makes the character interesting, especially when the crime-solving revives his joie de vivre.
As for the crime elements, there isn't much in the way of urgency or danger for about 90% of the runtime, which keeps the movie from being truly nail-biting, but 23 PACES is more about the foggy, old-school London atmosphere than blowing your mind with a complex, clever plot. There's a weird coziness to the story and characters, giving it a different vibe from the ironic cool of Hitchcock's work.