ANATOMY OF A MURDER (1959) ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Otto Preminger
James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara,
Arthur O'Connell, George C. Scott, Eve Arden,
Murray Hamilton, Orson Bean, Kathryn Grant
Adult courtroom drama with Stewart as a small-town lawyer defending an Army lieutenant (Ben Gazzara) accused of killing the man who allegedly raped his wife. The focus is more on how justice works than on whether the accused is guilty or not. Throughout the movie, the defendant and his wife (Lee Remick) arouse more suspicion than sympathy, and the objections the prosecutors raise to Stewart's grandstanding tactics are mostly justified. Scott stands out in an early role as a high-powered attorney who shows up to assist the prosecution. The folksy, bullshit-resistant judge is Joseph N. Welch, who made his real-life mark a few years earlier by famously standing up to Senator Joe McCarthy. Duke Ellington composed the music and appears briefly in a nightclub scene playing a piano duet with Stewart.
Ben Gazzara
(1930-2012)
