1959 Directed by Otto Preminger
Semi-retired Michigan lawyer Paul Biegler takes the case of Army Lt. Manion, who murdered a local innkeeper after his wife claimed that he raped her. Over the course of an extensive trial, Biegler parries with District Attorney Lodwick and out-of-town prosecutor Claude Dancer to set his client free, but his case rests on the victim's mysterious business partner, who's hiding a dark secret.
James Stewart Lee Remick Ben Gazzara Arthur O'Connell Eve Arden Kathryn Grant George C. Scott Orson Bean Russ Brown Murray Hamilton Brooks West Ken Lynch John Qualen Howard McNear Alexander Campbell Ned Wever Jimmy Conlin Royal Beal Joseph Kearns Don Ross Lloyd Le Vasseur James Waters Joseph N. Welch Duke Ellington Irv Kupcinet Chuck Ramsay Mrs. Joseph Welch
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Thrillers and murder mysteries Politics and human rights cops, murder, thriller, detective or crime drama, marriage, family, emotional or emotion film noir, femme fatale, 1940s, thriller or intriguing murder, crime, drama, gripping or victim racism, african american, powerful, hatred or slavery Show All…
to me, there are fewer things more surreal than hearing someone say the word "bitch" in a Hollywood film from 1959
I’m sure this was revolutionary for its time, but it feels like your run of the mill Sunday afternoon TCM procedural to me, with some pretty upsetting implications to its ending. Lee Remick is gorgeous though, and the faces are lit so beautifully!
phenomenal film, the most brisk two and a half hour movie i’ve ever seen. more to say later about jimmy stewart’s performance, which is way more interesting than it appears at first glance.
update: so i promised more on stewart and here it is.
preminger presents the law as a kind of theater. everyone involved — the defense, the defendant, the prosecutor, the witnesses, the jury — is playing a part, and success (or failure) depends on how well you can perform your allotted part. what makes stewart so great here is he uses this premise to play with his own persona. to the jury, and to us the audience, stewart’s biegler is a kind, good natured, humble country lawyer,…
Only a few of the 1.2k movies I saw as part of my Movies You Should Watch Before You Die list made an impression on me. This was one of them. The opening few minutes are a little sluggish, and while there is plenty of good, terms of building up the film noir components into the film, once we get into the courtroom, the film morphs into what many, including myself, believe to be one of the greatest in the genre.
The entire cast, from minor to our protagonist (one of them actually an icon in the legal field and US history) are all fire. The writing is superb; it is engrossing, quotable, and naturally hilarious. The cinematography is simple,…
A-
• Watching this film feels like you're inside the courtroom yourself.
• The 2 hour and 40 minute runtime flew by so fast.
• Sharp and compelling dialogue, check!
• The film provided no easy answers. It's morally ambiguous as a whole, just like the justice system in general.
• Timely and relevant. Way ahead of its time!
• I think this film and 12 Angry Men (1957) would make a great double feature.
sinegang weekly pick #24 by abby
I liked the part where Jimmy Stewart requested for the victim's dog to be in the courtroom.
83/100
[Originally written on my blog.]
Such a strange film, especially for its time. Despite being fictional, it's closer in spirit to Depardon's Moments of Trial than to most courtroom dramas, its focus on Jimmy Stewart's defense attorney a hugely effective red herring. Both sides of the law are examined and found wanting, albeit implictly; it took me half the film to realize (and I'm not sure I realized it at all when I first saw it over 20 years ago) that Biegler's tactics are often even more underhanded than the prosecution's, and that this isn't "clumsily ironic" but the whole damn point. Masterfully done, but it does leave a massive hole where any human interest ought to be, which retroactively makes touches like the redemption of Arthur O'Connell's alcoholic mentor seem not just irrelevant but intrusive. R.I.P. Ben Gazzara, so quietly powerful and cagily opaque in this role.
Every time I see a James Stewart impression I have to actively not try to impersonate him the next day.
Unlike other courtroom dramas, Anatomy of a Murder seems to be more focused on the amoral than the moral. Preminger becomes fascinated with toying with your own sense of right and wrong, making you root for characters that don't always represent your own sense of right and wrong. Preminger is so methodical in his direction, it feels like you're actually in the court room, or sitting on the jury, getting to know this case inside and out.
Beautifully shot, meticulously executed, and even more powerful on a rewatch.
SINEGANG WEEK #22, picked by abby
Sinegang Film Club Account — CLICK HERE
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I have always been fascinated with courtroom dramas, as someone who absolutely loves watching people argue all day, and nothing has ever come close with the excellence that Anatomy of a Murder presented–maybe 12 Angry Men, but that’s another beast in it of itself. The premise is simple: a lawyer doing the best of his abilities by taking a murder case; but in reality, it’s far from that. The complexities of a case trial is extremely difficult to shown on-screen, as it doesn’t start and end inside the four walls of a courtroom, and the film showed something beyond that. It started slow as…
Part of the 30 Days in May challenge, 2014 edition
USA
Up to today I had thought that Lumet’s 12 Angry Men and Wilder’s Witness for the Prosecution, as a pair, owned the Courtroom Drama genre. 1957 was a pretty fine year in that regard. Enter Otto Preminger a couple of years later with Anatomy of a Murder, and I now declare it’s a trinity.
Right from the opening shots the fluidness and ease just ooze from the screen syncopated with the cool licks of Duke Ellington. The camera is always moving, starting with the brilliant opening tracking shot of our protagonist’s convertible. We see it come along the road, and almost like we’re a kid running alongside, we meet…
