Witness for the Prosecution

Witness for the Prosecution (1957) is adapted from Agatha Christie's play and is one of the best built mechanisms Billy Wilder ever made. Sir Wilfrid is an elderly barrister recovering from a serious heart attack. The doctors tell him to rest, not to smoke, and not to take criminal cases. He does all three. The case that arrives: Leonard Vole is accused of murdering a wealthy widow, and his only witness is his wife Christine. Then Christine takes the stand as a witness for the prosecution. The strength of the film is not the courtroom but two people inside it: the barrister played by Charles Laughton and his nurse played by Elsa Lanchester. They bicker constantly and that is the entire comic vein of the film. Laughton and Lanchester were married in real life, and the familiarity shows. Marlene Dietrich has a second role in the film and it was deliberately concealed. The account given is that the studio never announced it in order to protect the secret, and that this cost her an Oscar nomination. When the film ends a notice appears on screen asking the audience not to reveal the ending. That was done in 1957, and it is an early instance of the spoiler protection we now take for granted. It runs 116 minutes, in black and white. Good for: classic thrillers, courtroom films, and Agatha Christie. Less good for: the pacing is old fashioned, the first half is slow, and anyone who has heard the ending has largely lost the film.