Good 50's Films: Witness for the Prosecution

1957 Courtroom Drama
From United Artists
Directed by Billy Wilder

Starring
Tyrone Power
Marlene Dietrich
Charles Laughton
Elsa Lanchester
John Williams
Torin Thatcher
Henry Daniell
Una O'Connor
Ian Wolfe
Norma Varden
Ruta Lee

I always found this film to be an awfully good time.   If one is in the mood for suspense and mystery and one of the best courtroom dramas ever, here you go.  Agatha Christie's dialogue and Wilder's superb direction sparkle from start to finish.  There is never a slow moment.

Speaking of that finish, if you've never seen this movie (or its remakes), you'll never see it coming even with me telling you this.  The finale is more than capable of leaving new viewers slack-jawed.  Its tagline reads... it's climaxed by the 10 most breath-stopping minutes you ever lived.  Don't reveal the ending, please.  Side-stepping the dramatic overkill, I can't reveal the ending here either.  It would just be all kinds of wrong.

What I will divulge is that an English barrister who has a heart condition (and a feisty home nurse in attendance) has been warned about taking on any more criminal cases.  But he is seduced by a murder case involving a poor American inventor who has been accused of killing a wealthy matron he was trying to interest in bankrolling an invention.  The barrister, however, turns the man down but upon meeting his German wife changes his mind.

The barrister is all over the place on his client's innocence or lack thereof.  Part of the fun for audiences is that they are as well.  In fact, unlike some other mysteries, we are quite sure about what we know.  We are sure we're going to see our hunches pay off.  And then we're not so sure.  What a tribute to Christie for bringing that about in audiences.

The barrister is fascinated with how cold and aloof the wife is.  She doesn't appear to greatly love her husband but she does provide an alibi of sorts and is willing to do her part in clearing him of murder charges.  The barrister and the wife become engaged in the courtroom in a delicious battle of wits (thank you Christie, thank you Dietrich, thank you Laughton) with the latter blaring out that the wife is a liar.  I love this scene so much that I play it over several times on the DVD before moving on.

It was known that a wife could not be compelled to testify against her husband so the powerful barrister (and we) are surprised when she is called as a witness for the prosecution.  So yes, when we realize she is the title character, the jaw begins its drop.

Later, when the verdict is read, the barrister says it was too neat, too tidy and altogether too symmetrical.  It's likely you'll think so too.  And then comes the jolt of that ending.  I read with some interest that the script pages for those final scenes were not given to the actors until a day or so before they were to be filmed.  How fun it must have been for them.

This was Power's final film (he was to die of a heart attack the following year on the set of another film) and he is good in it.  He was not the gorgeous man of his youth and he knew it was a role that would help showcase his acting skills, although he originally turned the role down.

It's possible he saw the wife and barrister roles as being stronger than his and he must have been more concerned when he learned his longtime friend, Laughton, and Dietrich were hired for the roles.  Laughton could act anyone off the screen and Dietrich, while by no means a great actress, had an allure that was unparalleled. There is one aspect of Power's casting that is sheer perfection and I wonder if readers know what it is.

Rumor has it that Dietrich knew of the play and she approached her good friend and fellow German, director Wilder, with the idea of doing the movie with her, of course, in the female lead.  I have no doubt she knew what was right for her and what wasn't.  Dietrich's natural mystery was what was most required to play this role.  I think it's the best thing she ever did.

The three of them...

Laughton is certainly given a long leash to explore the intricacies of his complicated character both as a savvy barrister and in his impeccable comic timing as a man with a heart condition who does battle with his strict nurse.  He was a champion scene-stealer... his looks helped with that, of course, and he had a catalog of facial mannerisms that he liberally employed.  He was a great listener as an actor.  He made the best use of a monocle here.

The comedy scenes he does with real-life wife Lanchester as the bossy nurse are wry and delightful to watch... what fun they have with comedy.

In the courtroom Thatcher is awesomely forensic as the steely prosecutor, Williams adds his usual dapper flare as a fellow barrister and Daniell is all-business as usual as a solicitor.  O'Connor, the only cast member who came from the play, has some striking moments as the dead woman's starchy maid.

Christie said this was her favorite production although in 1974 she said Murder on the Orient Express was thisclose to the same thing. 

This was a very happy set.  Wilder could be an autocrat and his sets were not always cheerful but this time out he was full of continental charm.  Laughton was often a difficult person to work with but he was a pussycat here.  Dietrich, too, could be demanding but not here.  She and others would bring in lunches and would go off to the corner of a sound stage and eat together.

It is thought the reason for some much harmony was Power.  Always a well-mannered gentleman, never with a big head, he was delighted to be part of an ensemble, not to mention the fact that he knew he was working with actors more respected than he.  Wilder claimed he was a dream to work with and was grateful he seemed to calm the other two down.  It may have looked calm but Power made the hearts of Dietrich and Laughton flutter.  Both were beside themselves to be working with him.

Hollywood closets are very large and Laughton and Power had known one another for some time.  They were never lovers, per se, but the beautiful Power always seemed to keep the not-so-attractive Laughton in a constant state of unrest when they were around one another.  Earlier in the decade they had toured in a regional play and Power often had meals at the Laughtons and they went on some holidays together..  Lanchester confirmed her husband was besotted with Power's beauty.

That beauty had dissipated a bit by the filming but Dietrich still saw the man from Jesse James, The Black Swan and Blood and Sand.  Dietrich, who always had affairs with women, also bedded many of her leading men but it was not to happen with Power.  Frankly, he probably knew she was too much woman for him.  She bombarded him with attention and gifts and it was said it embarrassed him. 

File and forget item:  when Power and the old dowager are watching a movie together in one scene, it is Jesse James.

Dietrich, always vain and critical of her looks, used face straps for this film, a process whereby they were attached to the side of her face and her skin was lifted and pulled back and the straps were then attached to the back of her head, concealed under a wig.  It's easy to tell.  Instead of turning just her head to look at someone or something, she turns her whole body so as not to compromise the process.

Witness for the Prosecution became a great hit for the three actors and the director.  Audiences flocked to it... with good reason.  Here, have a quick look:

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