Witness for the Prosecution

I might be asking for trouble here, but did Charles Laughton ever actually make a bad film? He leads this one as the brilliant but curmudgeonly barrister "Sir Wildred Robarts" with oodles of charisma and style. Marlene Dietrich portrays the evil, manipulative "Christine Vole" marvellously and even Tyrone Power, more the matinée idol than the serious actor, delivers as required in Billy Wilder's outstanding rendition of the Agatha Christie story about a man accused of murdering an elderly lady who has just happened to leave him a great deal of money in her will. Elsa Lanchester is suitably annoying/scary/lovable as the nurse trying to keep her ailing charge from keeling over mid-trial and a slew of other capable British actors - including a wonderfully charismatic turn from Una O'Connor in the witness box - fill in the supporting roles well. It is one of those very rare occasions where...

I'm constantly surprised that women's hats don't provoke more murders. Leonard Steven Vole finds himself on trial for the murder of a wealthy widow from whom he has inherited a fortune. Top barrister Sir Wilfrid Robarts takes up the defendants case, but he, along with everyone else, is stunned when Vole's seemingly loving wife Christine turns up to testify against the defendant. Based on Agatha Christie's successful 1953 play, "Witness For The Prosecution" benefited from fine tuning from master director Billy Wilder and writing partner Harry Kurnitz. Here the dialogue becomes razor sharp and the characters are fully realised with quite wonderful results, but chiefly the masterstroke here is not letting a court room drama become just that, a court room drama. The film plays out with no wasted scenes, no moments of boredom, and it has such vim and vigour you sometimes forget that there...

Why don't they make THESE movies anymore? Apart from being a GREAT courtroom drama(which some people don't think this movie is), this movie is so much FUN and ENTERTAINING to watch.Especially because of the characters of Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester. But Tyrone Power and Marlene Dietrich were convincing too in their portrayal of an innocent, afraid for his life man and a disloyal, unloving, poker faced wife respectively. Some people might say that they predicted the ending half way down the movie but i am not quite sure as to how they predicted the ACTUAL ENDING before it really unfolded before their eyes? This movie is great not only in the part played in court but also in the scenes shot in Sir Wilfrid Robarts's office(also due to Miss Plimsoll's caringly lovably irritating character!). Perhaps the people(the minority I'd like to believe) who don't think this movie deserves...

Great thriller with superb classical interpretations. The plot moves sometimes too lazily.