Witness for the ProsecutionThe 1957 film, "Witness for the Prosecution" stars Charles Laughton, Marlene Dietrich and Tyrone Power. Laughton plays the curmudgeonly Sir Wilfred, a barrister at the Inns of Court (in London) who takes on the case of a young man who is accused of murder. Laughton does a brilliant job maintaining the tension between comic and suspense. His character has just suffered a heart-attack, and he is in constant conflict with his live-in nurse who does everything she can to keep him from indulging in the vices that gave him the heart-attack to begin with. The prattling nurse is played by Laughton's real-life wife, Elsa Lanchester. The performance of the legendary Dietrich as the accused's wife, seemed somewhat stilted to me. Yet at the same time she had the presence to maintain an air of mystery that was not always easy to carry off in the films of the 1950s, which lacked many of the later techniques that film-makers use to create mood. Power did a nice job as the innocent accused. This was evidently his last role. He was still credibly playing the lady's man. The director was Billy Wilder who is one of the more famous directors of all time. He was masterful especially in the scenes with Laughton. The flashbacks were well-done and did not require some hokey technique to keep the viewer in the know. I found it interesting that Tyrone Power had top billing, even though Charles Laughton was the real star. Laughton's Sir Wilfred was the central character and certainly had the best of the dialogue. On the whole, the movie was a lot of fun, suspenseful without being morbid and funny without resorting to lowbrow humor. I highly recommend this picture to anyone who enjoys a good courtroom drama or murder mystery. |