Witness for the Prosecution

Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

Directed by Billy Wilder

Screenplay by Billy Wilder and Harry Kurnitz

Adaptation by Lawrence B. Marcus

Based on the play by Agatha Christie

Stars: Charles Laughton, Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Elsa Lanchester, John Williams, Ian Wolfe, Torin Thatcher, Norma Varden, Una O'Connor, Francis Compton, and Ruta Lee

Scrolling through the selections on Amazon Prime, I happen to find this movie. I wanted to see more Billy Wilder or Marlene Dietrich movies. This is solid courtroom drama to see.

Leonard Vole (Power) is standing trial. He is accused of the murder of Mrs. Emily Jane French (Varden). Noted barrister, Sir Wilfrid Robarts (Laughton) is tasked to represent him, even though his care nurse, Miss Plimsoll (Lanchester) watches him like a hawk, because of his recent heart attack. Over the course of the trial, details of that faithful come to the light.

I have to say that the banter between Wilfird and Plimsoll was very good. I didn't know that the movie was nominated for six Oscars. Laughton was very good with his portrayal of Wilfird. I cannot say that same with Lanchester. I'm not saying that she was bad, but I thought she was fine. Oscar worthy? Not really.

Usually when there is a mystery, I would usually figure it out an hour before the movie ends. This last fifteen minutes of the movie was the most riveting piece of cinema I have ever seen. I thought that I was so smart and figured everything out. Nope.

After the ending credits, I have more questions about the behaviors of certain people.

Rating: 8/10

Judgment at Nuremberg

Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)

Directed by Stanley Kramer

Screenplay by Abby Mann

Based on the teleplay "Judgment at Nuremberg" (1959) for the Playhouse 90 series by Abby Mann

Stars: Spencer Tracy, Maximilian Schell, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, Montgomery Clift, William Shatner, Werner Klemperer, Torben Meyer, Martin Brandt, Kenneth MacKenna, and Ray Teal 

This movie has been on my watch list for a couple of months now. I was putting off watching the movie, because the movie is three hours. Now that I have seen the movie, I wish the movie was shorter.

After the atrocities of the Third Reich in WWII, four German defendants; Dr. Janning (Lancaster), Emil Hahn (Klemperer), Werner Lampe (Meyer), Friedrich Hofstetter (Brandt) are standing trial for war crimes against people during that time. A tribunal of judges including, Chief Judge Dan Haywood (Tracy) preside over the case with Col. Tad Lawson (Widmark) as the prosecutor and Hans Rolfe (Schell) as one of the defense attorneys.

I am going to get the negatives out of the way. It was a good movie overall. I felt that the scenes outside of the courtroom lacked the intensity for me to be fully engaged. The other thing that bothered me was the start of the trail the German participants spoke German with English translators and vice versa, then this is completely dropped in the first forty minutes of the movie. Why did the people needs to translator headsets if they spoke in the same language?

The performances of the cast were spectacular. Schell was commanding as Hans Rolfe. Tracy was more nuanced in his performance. Learning that Clift ad-libbed his lines, you could not tell. It was very convincing. Garland was haunting and heartbreaking in her time. The middle of the movie was the most impactful part of the movie. I could not believe my eyes. It was devastating.

Rating: 9/10