Essentials: Witness for the Prosecution

Grade A #1!!!

Year: 1957 (USA)
Genre: Drama/Courtroom Drama
Directed: Billy Wilder
Stars: Charles Laughton, Marlene Dietrich, Tyrone Power, Elsa Lanchester, John Williams, Henry Daniell, Norma Varden, Una O'Connor
Production: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Many people contend that the idea of enumerating your favorite movies (or favorite anything for that matter) is a foolhardy proposition. Things change after all, depending on your mood, interests, range of experiences etc. After all when I started organizing and curating my favorite DVDs my all time favorite was BASEketball (1998). I was also fifteen-years-old. Still, even when I was a teenager I still enjoyed the works of director Billy Wilder; I still do. Whether its Sabrina (1954), Sunset Blvd. (1950) or Ace in the Hole (1951), his dedication to quality is only eclipsed by his incredible versatility. In a career spanning just shy of fifty years, Wilder has done every genre under the sun from film noir to romantic comedy.

He was also kind of a pimp

In Witness for the Prosecution (1957), Billy Wilder takes a stab at the courtroom drama genre taking inspiration from the work of the esteemed Agatha Christie. Charles Laughton plays British barrister Sir Wilfred Robards a trial lawyer who recently suffered a serious heart attack. Told by his doctors to take it easy, Sir Wilfred’s interests are peeked by a murder case brought forward by a friend. His decision to take the case is aided by the promise of cigars, brandy and a murder trial where things may not be what they seem. Tyrone Power costars as defendant Leonard Vole and Marlene Dietrich brings down the house as his wife aka the witness for the prosecution.

Our leading man everybody!

Charles Laughton made quite an illustrious career for himself back in the day. Especially for someone who was never considered leading man material because if his unconventional appearance and girth. Not only was he an accomplished, award winning actor of the screen he was also an adept stage actor and director, starring in London and New York Shakespeare productions of MacBeth, Measure for Measure and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.


Laughton makes Witness for the Prosecution work. Period. Without him and his consistently wily, quick witted sense of humor, the movie’s pacing would have relegated Wilder’s masterpiece to Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) light. Laughton’s chemistry with his overbearing nurse (played by real life wife Elsa Lanchester) provide brevity to the melodrama surrounding the case.

The melodrama however comes in spades with Marlene Dietrich playing the defendants icy German wife. Dietrich is a vision of valkyrie beauty who presents herself as an untouchable beauty yet coils like a cobra every time she’s under pressure. There is much under the surface of her character and while the last five minutes of the movie betrays her sensibilities, there is no one else who could have played the role with better aloofness and malice.

or awoofness and mawice

 As the credits role in Witness for the Prosecution, an telecaster announces no one should ruin the surprises and twists in the story for the sake of their friends. In that spirit I won’t ruin anything for you. That being said the plot twists are rather Byzantine as they are unveiled to the audience and Sir Wilfred. It's not that the final reveals are unrealistic; its that they're not coaxed or prodded out but rather fall out of the movie like the truth out of a toddler.

I just shaved the dog!

The works of Billy Wilder will make one more appearance on this list and even then the triptych I have chosen don't accurately portray the depth of his talent. He’s one of my favorite directors and one of the most talented individuals of Hollywood’s golden age. He worked with the likes of Humphrey Bogart, Jack Lemmon, Kirk Douglas, Marilyn Monroe, Barbara Stanwyck, and of course Charles Laughton and Marlene Dietrich. If he were alive today he probably would have reinvented himself in the style of the blockbuster style. A Billy Wilder action-shot-em-up; now wouldn’t that be the cat’s meow.

Final Grade: A