Billy Wilder adapts Agatha Christie to great success in Witness for the Prosecution. Witness for the Prosecution appears often on lists of the best court room films.
Wilder’s achievement is muted, this is a greater accomplishment for Charles Laughton as Sir Wilfrid Roberts and Marlene Dietrich as Christine. Laughton plays this Jabba the Hutt-looking lizard of a cantankerous old man. He is insulting everything and everyone for the entire running time of the film. But, he is hell bent on the truth- and he is so damn likeable despite the description here. “I’m a mean, ill-tempered old man who hates to lose.” Dietrich is the cold, calculating German. “I’m quite disciplined”- she’s a survivor- and for much of the film, she makes your blood curdle. She gets a big “damn you!” in the courtroom as she and Laughton play verbal chess. Dietrich (apparently devasted when she didn’t get a nomination) even gets a quick dual role with her little barroom “duckie” character—well done.
Tragically, Tyrone Power would die the following year at the young age of 44.
The film garnered six Oscar nominations.
Laughton’s Roberts takes the case because he wants cigars. He stays this way till the end betting a box of cigars just before the final cross examination.
There are flashbacks of Christine and Leonard’s (Power) meeting during the war. Wilder’s approach is utilitarian for the most part. He does play Laughton’s character’s health as a comedy, and the main story with the murder/trial as a serious mystery/drama (though the casting of talented comedienne Una O’Connor makes one wonder about the blending of the two).
In a few sequences Wilder does try for some stronger compositions. This could not be mistaken for Kurosawa but at the 39-minute mark Laughton is in the foreground left facing the camera with John Williams’ character (fellow lawyer Brogan-Moore) facing the camera background right. At the 112-minute mark there is another one of these praise-worthy set-ups with Dietrich front left and Laughton in the background right (this is during the big epilogue reveal).
@Drake – Agree with on all counts. I also thought that Power was a bit weak in his big dramatic scene in a courtroom, and I was not a fan of the ending (too many developments in a really short period of time).
But Laughton is sooo good in this. He almost elevates this movie to HR.
Hey Drake I’ll appreciate your thoughts on the question I asked on 1971 page particularly the 1st one as I’m pretty certain about the second one myself.
“Between Julie Christie in Doctor Zhivago & Fonda in Klute, which performance would you rank higher.”
What do you think is the best movie of 2020, and are you on Letterboxd?
@RujK – I am not active on Letterboxd– and I still think I have I’m Thinking of Ending Things as the top rated film of 2020
@Drake – Agree with on all counts. I also thought that Power was a bit weak in his big dramatic scene in a courtroom, and I was not a fan of the ending (too many developments in a really short period of time).
But Laughton is sooo good in this. He almost elevates this movie to HR.
Hey Drake I’ll appreciate your thoughts on the question I asked on 1971 page particularly the 1st one as I’m pretty certain about the second one myself.
“Between Julie Christie in Doctor Zhivago & Fonda in Klute, which performance would you rank higher.”