Review of Witness for the Prosecution (1957) by Kenneth L — 10 Jul 2012

This movie is as good as you would expect a Billy Wilder adaptation of an Agatha Christie play to be. If you know who both of those people are, I don't really have to say much more, do I?

The story follows a man (Tyrone Power) who has been accused of murdering a rich old widow, his ambiguous and icy wife (Marlene Dietrich), and the overweight, irascible, clever old lawyer (Charles Laughton) who decides to get to the bottom of the case. The movie is so full of twists and turns that it actually ends with a literal request for you not to spoil it for audiences who haven't seen it yet, so even though the film is 55 years old, I'll still preserve its secrets for you.

Charles Laughton, who got an Oscar nomination for the movie, is hilarious and very memorable as the old lawyer. It's a very colorful character, the sort of grumpy but brilliant old man that seems to have been more common in old movies and that you rarely see in movies these days. Marlene Dietrich is also really great as the accused's wife, who takes some shocking actions throughout the course of the movie. Her performance is played very close to the chest, revealing little behind her cold exterior. Tyrone Power is fine as the accused, though he mostly just has to sit there and look worried about coniction. Elsa Lanchester, who also got an Oscar nomination for her comparatively small part, is very funny as the lawyer's fussy nurse.

The screenplay was technically written by Wilder and Harry Kurnitz, but obviously the cleverness of the story and the witty dialogue are due to Agatha Christie. I always mean to see and read more of her stuff than I have been able to so far, but I've never yet been disappointed by a Christie story. Billy Wilder's directorial style is maybe more conservative and traditional than usual, but it seems appropriate to the material's stage origins. This movie would probably end up being classified as minor Billy Wilder, but that's still a compliment when his major work includes Double Indemnity, Some Like It Hot, and Sunset Boulevard.