Witness for the Prosecution (1957 film)

Witness for the Prosecution is a 1957 American legal mystery thriller film directed by Billy Wilder and starring Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, and Charles Laughton, with Elsa Lanchester and John Williams. The film, which has elements of bleak black comedy and film noir, is a courtroom drama set in the Old Bailey in London and is based on the 1953 play of the same title by Agatha Christie. The first film adaptation of Christie's story, Witness for the Prosecution was written for the screen by Wilder and Harry Kurnitz and adapted by Larry Marcus.

The film was acclaimed by critics and received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. It also received five Golden Globe Award nominations including a win for Elsa Lanchester as Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Additionally, the film was selected as the sixth-best courtroom drama ever by the American Film Institute for their AFI's 10 Top 10 list.

In the film, a man accused of killing a wealthy widow who had named him as the main beneficiary in her will undergoes a trial during which his wife testifies against him.

Plot

Senior barrister Sir Wilfrid Robarts is nearing retirement after a heart attack. He agrees to defend Leonard Vole, despite Nurse Plimsoll's objections and Sir Wilfrid's doctor having warned against taking stressful criminal cases. Vole is accused of murdering Emily French, a wealthy, childless widow who fell in love with him and named him as the main beneficiary in her will.

Sir Wilfrid speaks with Vole's German wife, Christine, who he finds cold and self-possessed; she provides a not entirely plausible alibi. During the trial in the Old Bailey, the Crown introduces testimony that Mrs. French had seen Vole with a younger woman and planned to confront him, but Sir Wilfrid believes his client to be innocent. He is shocked when Christine is called to give evidence against Vole as a prosecution witness.

While a wife cannot be compelled to testify against her husband, it is revealed in court that her marriage to Vole is invalid, as she was already married to another man, Otto Helm, still alive and living in Germany. She states that she never loved Leonard, and her conscience compels her to tell the truth. She explains that she had gone through a ceremony of marriage with Leonard, a Royal Air Force officer serving in Berlin's British occupation zone, solely to escape from Soviet-controlled territory to the West. According to her testimony, Leonard confessed that after being confronted by Mrs. French, he had killed her to avoid being disinherited from her will.

While fearing his client will be convicted and sentenced to hang, Sir Wilfrid is unexpectedly contacted by a woman who offers to sell him letters written by Christine to a lover named Max. The handwriting is genuine, and the woman has a legitimate reason for providing the letters: her lover attacked and disfigured her face. During cross examination, Sir Wilfred reads the letters, which disclose a conspiracy between Max and Christine to frame Leonard. The jury acquits Leonard.

Sir Wilfrid's worries prove justified when Christine, brought into the courtroom for safety after being assailed by the departing crowd, tells him what she did to win the acquittal. After Sir Wilfrid had previously told Christine that a jury would not believe a loving wife's alibi, she posed as a hateful, double-crossing wife. She also wrote letters to a non-existent lover and impersonated the disfigured woman who gave Sir Wilfred the letters to discredit her own testimony. Christine says she loves Leonard, but knew he was guilty. Christine told the truth about the murder in the witness-box: Leonard did confess to her.

Leonard, overheard by Christine, gleefully boasts that he manipulated and murdered Mrs. French. Sir Wilfrid, who believed in his client's innocence, is outraged. However, due to English double jeopardy laws, no further legal action can be taken against Leonard.

Leonard says he is having an affair with the much younger woman seen by Mrs. French, and now plans to abandon Christine. He smugly states that though Christine will be tried for perjury, he and she are now even, having saved each other's lives. A devastated Christine grabs a knife and stabs Leonard, killing him. As she is arrested, Sir Wilfrid decides to further delay his retirement to serve as Christine's defence counsel.

Production

Producers Arthur Hornblow and Edward Small bought the rights to the play for $450,000. The play was adjusted to emphasize the character of the defence barrister.<ref name="LATimes">Template:Cite news</ref> Billy Wilder was signed to direct in April 1956.<ref name="Pryor">Template:Cite news</ref> According to Wilder, when the producers approached Marlene Dietrich about the part, she accepted on the condition that Wilder direct. Wilder said that Dietrich liked "to play a murderess" but was "a little bit embarrassed when playing the love scenes."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Vivien Leigh was considered for the role of Christine Vole.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Laughton based his performance on Florance Guedella, his own lawyer, an Englishman who was known for twirling his monocle while cross-examining witnesses.<ref name="LATimes"/>

In a flashback showing how Leonard and Christine first meet in a German nightclub, she is wearing her trademark trousers, made famous by Dietrich in director Josef von Sternberg's film Morocco (1930).<ref>Template:Harvnb. "...this scene alluded playfully to Dietrich's iconic performances in The Blue Angel (1930) and Morocco."</ref> A rowdy customer rips them down one side, revealing one of Dietrich's renowned legs and starting a brawl. The scene required 145 extras and 38 stuntmen, and cost $90,000.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The bar is called Die blaue Laterne (Template:Langx), which is a reference to Dietrich's 1930 film The Blue Angel.Template:Cn

United Artists' "surprise ending"

At the end of the film, as the credits roll, a voiceover announces:

This was in keeping with the advertising campaign for the film. One of the posters said: "You'll talk about it! – but please don't tell the ending!"<ref>Template:Harvnb. "the end credits earnestly entreat the audience not to divulge [the surprise ending] upon leaving the theater."</ref>

The effort to keep the ending a secret extended to the cast. Billy Wilder did not allow the actors to view the final ten pages of the script until it was time to shoot those scenes. The secrecy reportedly cost Marlene Dietrich an Academy Award, as United Artists did not want to call attention to the fact that Dietrich was practically unrecognizable as the Cockney woman who hands over the incriminating letters to the defense.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>Template:Better source needed

Reception

Box office

Witness for the Prosecution reached number one at the American box office for two consecutive weeks in February and March 1958.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In its first year, the film earned $3.75 million in distributor rentals in the United States and Canada.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Critical response

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther wrote: "[T]here's never a dull or worthless moment. It's all parry and punch from the word 'Go!', which is plainly announced when the accused man is brought to Mr. Laughton at the beginning of the film. And the air in the courtroom fairly crackles with emotional electricity, until that staggering surprise in the last reel. Then the whole drama explodes. It's the staging of the scenes that is important in this rapidly moving film ... It's the balancing of well-marked characters, the shifts of mood, the changes of pace and the interesting bursts of histrionics that the various actors display."<ref name="Pryor"/>

Agatha Christie "herself considered it the finest film derived from one of her stories."Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In TV GuideTemplate:'s review of the film, it received four and a half stars out of five, the writer saying that "Witness for the Prosecution is a witty, terse adaptation of the Agatha Christie hit play brought to the screen with ingenuity and vitality by Billy Wilder."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The American Film Institute included the film on their AFI's 10 Top 10 list at number six in the courtroom-drama category.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 100% based on 41 reviews, with an average rating of 8.7/10.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Accolades

Award	Category	Recipient(s)	Result
Academy Awards<ref name="Oscars1958">Template:Cite web</ref>	Best Picture	Arthur Hornblow Jr.	Template:Nom
	Best Director	Billy Wilder	Template:Nom
	Best Actor	Charles Laughton	Template:Nom
	Best Supporting Actress	Elsa Lanchester	Template:Nom
	Best Film Editing	Daniel Mandell	Template:Nom
	Best Sound Recording	Gordon E. Sawyer	Template:Nom
British Academy Film Awards	Best Actor in a Leading Role	Charles Laughton	Template:Nom
David di Donatello Awards	Best Foreign Actor		Template:Won
Directors Guild of America Awards	Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures	Billy Wilder	Template:Nom
Edgar Allan Poe Awards	Best Motion Picture	Billy Wilder and Harry Kurnitz	Template:Nom
Golden Globe Awards	Best Motion Picture – Drama		Template:Nom
	Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama	Charles Laughton	Template:Nom
	Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama	Marlene Dietrich	Template:Nom
	Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture	Elsa Lanchester	Template:Won
	Best Director – Motion Picture	Billy Wilder	Template:Nom
Laurel Awards	Top Drama		Template:Draw
	Top Female Dramatic Performance	Marlene Dietrich	Template:Draw
Online Film & Television Association Awards	Hall of Fame – Motion Picture		Template:Won

Home media

Witness for the Prosecution was released on DVD by MGM Home Entertainment on December 11, 2001, as a Region 1 widescreen DVD, and by Kino Lorber (under license from MGM) on Blu-ray on July 22, 2014, as a Region 1 widescreen disc.

See also

• List of American films of 1957
• Trial film

References

Bibliography

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External links

• Template:IMDb title
• Witness for the Prosecution at AllMovie
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