Review of Witness for the Prosecution (1957) by Chris M — 06 Aug 2013

In writer-director Billy Wilder's 1957 courtroom drama Witness for the Prosecution, we follow an elderly lawyer (Charles Laughton) with poor health who takes on a criminal case, much to the dissatisfaction of his private nurse (Elsa Lanchester). This case requires him to defend a man (Tyrone Power) who is accused of killing an old, rich lady (Norma Varden) whom he had developed a fond friendship with. He's accused of the crime because she made him the main acceptor of her will.

This case becomes more complicated when the defendant's German wife (Marlene Dietrich) basically testifies against her husband because she's actually married to another man. The lawyer finds this particular part of the case strange because wives should naturally be supportive of their husbands no matter what. From there, many more complicated issues take place with attempting to solve this case that it all leads up to a shocking finale.

This finale was so famous that the filmmakers literally put up a disclaimer at the very end of the film telling its audiences not to talk about it or give away the film's secret. You don't see that type of disclaimer nowadays anymore, do you? While I can't say that this is one of the most shocking endings ever, I will say that I do appreciate the filmmaker's attempt to keep the ending a secret as much as possible. That's more than I can say for all the movie trailers and commercials today which seem to give away too much about certain movies, though that's another subject I'll plan to tackle another time via editorial.

One of the aspects about Witness for the Prosecution overall that I liked was the relationship between the lawyer and the nurse. I just like how this lawyer sort of does whatever he can to disobey his nurse's advice and how much this nurse unintentionally drives him nuts. I thought they handled that relationship very well. Neither of them came off as bad simply because they disagreed with each other, they just constantly got in each other's way so to speak.

As far as courtroom dramas go, I don't think that Witness for the Prosecution is the strongest film I've seen from this genre, but I still think that this is a pretty good picture in its own right. The storytelling is pretty well focused and the acting by the likes of Laughton and Lanchester are well done. However, I'm split in regards to what I feel about the main case itself. Sometimes I was really interested in the developments that arose in the case. Other times, I wasn't either due to being unable to understand certain parts or just finding the characters involved in the case not that interesting.

This doesn't put the film to a complete halt by any means, it just makes the better parts of the picture stand out more. As a whole, Witness for the Prosecution does what it was intended to do. If you like courtroom dramas in general, this film does the intended purposes a film in this genre are supposed to do and if you'll settle for that, then you won't be let down by any means.