WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION
TAGLINE: Unmatched…in a half century of motion picture suspense!
PIZZA: Big Mama and Big Papa
PRESHOW: CRISIS IN MORALITY, BABYSITTERS' GUIDE
COOL DIALOGUE: Brogan-Moore: “Touching, isn’t it? The way he counts on his wife.” Wilfred: “Yes. Like a drowning man clutching at a razor blade.”
ARE AGATHA’S PLOT POINTS CHRISTIE CLEAR?
IS BILLY DIRECTING WILDER THAN USUAL?
DOES TYRONE HAVE THE POWER TO GET ACQUITTED?
DID LAWYER CHARLES JUST SAY, “THERE OUGHTTA BE A LAUGHTON?”
IS MARLENE A, UM…ERR…A DIETRICHMENT
TO HER HUSBAND’S MURDER CASE?
IS BILLY DIRECTING WILDER THAN USUAL?
DOES TYRONE HAVE THE POWER TO GET ACQUITTED?
DID LAWYER CHARLES JUST SAY, “THERE OUGHTTA BE A LAUGHTON?”
IS MARLENE A, UM…ERR…A DIETRICHMENT
TO HER HUSBAND’S MURDER CASE?
You can feel safe that I won’t be giving anything away. I try never to do that anyway, though I’ll sometimes give you a Spoiler Alert. But if it pleases the court, I will say this; you know how there are some movies that you forget just how great they are? This is one. Please watch this movie. Not only am I petitioning you, but I’m also begging you. WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION is guilty of being one of my favorite movies.
OPENING ARGUMENTS:
The crime we are talking about is a felony, for if you have never seen WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION (1957), you will be charged with one count of first degree cinemacide. I’ll try to be brief as I outline the case.
First, the writing. WFTP was written by Billy Wilder, Harry Kurnitz and Larry Marcus, adapted from the Agatha Christie play, which itself was based on her short story. We all know Christie was an amazing mystery writer. Some, myself included, credit her for popularizing the “One Location” mystery with her unbeatable story/play/masterpiece AND THEN THERE WERE NONE. It’s a genre more popular today than ever.
The acting. Charles Laughton as barrister Wilfred stuns me with his talents here, including his side-of-the mouth quip delivery system. He really does make Sir Wilfred one of filmdom’s most fun characters. I mean, has there ever been a character so full of contempt yet so lovable? Yes, I love Laughton in this movie, but everyone’s great. John Williams (no no, not THAT one) is fun to see, with his stoic British demeanor. And, of course, the unstoppable Marlene Dietrich, in all her Germanic Life is a Cabaret glory as Christine, the accused’s wife. Dietrich, who incidentally was the one who brought the project to Wilder, is a symbol of fierce independence; Christine is a solid soul who stands strong in all situations, stronger than her war-torn Berlin living quarters did.
The directing. Billy Wilder. Gosh. He’s made so many of my Top 100 films - THE APARTMENT, THE LOST WEEKEND, DOUBLE INDEMNITY, STALAG 17, ACE IN THE HOLE and SUNSET BLVD (yes, I do like SOME LIKE IT HOT and others, but I like these a whole lot more). This is the 5th Wilder movie screened at RMC (AVANTI – 2010, A FOREIGN AFFAIR – 2009, STALAG 17 – 2006, THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES – 2000).
And lastly, an array of exemplary characters, all smart, funny and wonderfully realized. It’s that look Sir Wilfred gives his nurse Miss Plimsoll in the opening scene, on the way back from his hospital visit as she chatters away. And if the look isn’t enough, he tells her “If I knew how much you talked, I wouldn’t have come out of my coma.” Within seconds, we learn this will be no ordinary courtroom thriller. This movie will be funny, too, which is rarely an easy balancing act. But like Nat King Cole or Eddie Van Halen, Billy Wilder just makes it all look so easy, so effortless.
Another thing I love is how Wilder & Co. take things as mundane as eggbeaters and silly hats and make them into important plot points.
THE CASE:
Sir Wilfred has been in the hospital for two months and is itching to bring his corpulent cynical self back for one last case. You have to love how ornery he is, and how no one in his employ pays any mind. They’re all there to annoy him, and he’s there to annoy them, yet no one is annoyed, except for:
Elsa Lanchester (Laughton’s real wife/alleged beard) as Miss Plimsoll. I imagine they had a lot of fun playing these bickersons. “If you were a woman, Miss Plimsoll, I would strike you.”
We all love twists and turns, especially in courtroom stories (I’ve even written one myself), and WFTP has no shortage of them. Wilfred is even aware that something’s not right about this case, the same way Edward G. Robinson’s character Keys has his “little man” who would “tie knots in his stomach” when something wasn’t kosher in another great Wilder film that’s a must-see, DOUBLE INDEMNITY. (Sorry for that run-on sentence).
CLOSING ARGUMENTS:
The Prosecution rests.
By the way, the case I just sat on in Los Angeles? We found the defendant not guilty.
PRESHOW: CRISIS IN MORALITY, BABYSITTER’S GUIDE
CRISIS IN MORALITY – This gem is brought to us by the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (BIOLA). It’s about the sickness in our society, “Degradation on every level.” It’s “the moral decay of the people” that will make America die. This documentary short is filled with quotes and statistics that seem either out of context or just plain made up. “Gang wars (not Bloods and Crips) - groups of teens who, in two more years, will be arrested in the rate of 1 million per year. Crime is one of the symptoms of the disease of sin in the heart.” Here’s another stat – “Out of 8000 teenagers who passed through the juvenile system, only 42 regularly attended Sunday school.” They also claim that nearly 20% of births in Los Angeles are illegitimate, 70% pregnant are Junior High School age.
And then they say “how tragic it is that we have taken the Bible out of the classroom. They actually say, with anger, that it’s “unconstitutional.”
Then there’s other sins like divorce, narcotics, gambling, alcoholism, profanity and obscenity and immorality (sex). All the things people love. Way to win over people, BIOLA!
