WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION (1957) B/W widescreen 117m dir: Billy Wilder

w/Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester, John Williams, Henry Daniell, Ian Wolfe, Torin Thatcher, Norma Varden, Una O'Connor, Francis Compton, Philip Tonge, Ruta Lee

From The Movie Guide: "Dietrich steals it. 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. Sir Wilfred Robarts (Laughton) is a sickly barrister who is told by his doctors and forced by his pesty nurse Miss Plimsoll (Lanchester, Laughton's real-life wife), to retire from criminal cases. When his solicitor Mayhew (Daniell) arrives at his home with murder suspect Leonard Vole (Power), Robarts cannot resist. Hearing Vole's story, Robarts becomes convinced of the man's innocence, but because his only alibi is his wife Christine (Dietrich), prospects for his acquittal look dim. ...

"Improving on Christie's play, Wilder has rid WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION of much of the usual static courtroom scenes and filled the film with an active, visual excitement. Whether it be the fluidity of the camera, the use of an occasional flashback, or the diversion of Robarts's constant medical attention, Wilder succeeds in finding a way to relieve the boredom that typically accompanies the courtroom. Wilder even introduces the Miss Plimsoll character into Christie's scenario to add some life and a comic angle. At the film's halfway point, Wilder flashes back to wartime Germany for the standard Dietrich-as-cabaret-singer scene, giving her a chance to show off one of her attractive legs, play the accordion, and deliver 'I Never Go There Anymore' (Ralph Arthur Roberts, Jack Brooks). The part, one of her finest, was pure Dietrich, casting her as a woman who throws away everything --- her homeland, her reputation, and her life --- for the man she loves."

From the website www.archive.nytimes.com, this contemporary review of the film by Bosley Crowther:

"For a courtroom melodrama pegged to a single plot device --- a device that, of course, everybody promises not to reveal --- the Arthur Hornblow Jr. film production of the Agatha Christie play Witness for the Prosecution comes off extraordinarily well. This results mainly from Billy Wilder's splendid staging of some splintering courtroom scenes and a first-rate theatrical performance by Charles Laughton in the defense-attorney role.

"As a usual thing, these trial dialogues about where somebody was and what took place on the night of something or other become increasingly hard to take as witness follows witness and the examiners probe for key details. The viewer is likely to grow restive waiting for something to happen on the screen.

"And it is true that the screenplay of this one, which Mr. Wilder and Harry Kurnitz have prepared, puts forth most its helpful information in back-and-forth dialogue. Except for two hurried flashbacks --- the first of which amiably shows how an English chap on trial for murder met the widow he is accused of bumping off and the second of which shows in modest detail how he met his German wife --- virtually everything happens in the Old Bailey or in the chambers Mr. Laughton occupies.

"Never mind. Mr. Wilder sees to it, as the murder trial drags along and the wife, in defiance of tradition, appears as witness against her own husband, that there'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, which opened yesterday at both the Astor and the Plaza Theatres. 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.

"Tyrone Power has his ups as the accused man, Marlene Dietrich hits her high points as his wife and Torin Thatcher is awesomely forensic as the bewigged and begowned prosecutor. Philip Tonge makes a shrewd police inspector, Francis Compton is a finely learned judge and Una O'Connor is in for one great bit as a Scottish maid in the witness box. Henry Daniell as Mr. Laughton's solicitor and John Williams as his fellow-barrister are great in the wry, crisp tradition of the English inns-of-court.

"But it's Mr. Laughton who runs away with the show --- he and his wife, Elsa Lanchester, in an added role. Allowed by Mr. Wilder and Mr. Kurnitz to be afflicted with a heart that's not too strong and with a nurse who is shrill and tireless in trying to keep him away from brandy and cigars, Mr. Laughton adds a wealth of comical by-play to his bag of courtroom tricks. A certain famous British Prime Minister has plainly inspired his artful airs and gravelly voice.

"And Miss Lanchester is delicious as that maidenly henpecking nurse.

"The added dimensions of Mr. Laughton bulge this black-and-white drama into a hit."

WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION was nominated for six Oscars: Best Picture, Director, Actor (Laughton), Supporting Actress (Lanchester), Editing (Daniel Mandell), and Sound (Gordon Sawyer).