‘We’ve disposed of the gallows, but there’s still that banana peel somewhere...’
Billy Wilder. What an incredible director. The Apartment. Some Like It Hot. Sunset Blvd. All stone cold classics. Surprisingly though, in terms of the hallowed IMDB #250, all of these films rank lower than Witness for the Prosecution. Is this deserved? Perhaps not. Is it still another utter triumph in a career littered with them? Definitely…
Sir Wilfred Roberts (Charles Laughton) is a grouchy, misanthropic barrister on the verge of retirement. Fighting ill health, and the constant mithering of his nurse (Elsa Lanchester), Roberts battles to exonerate Leonard Vole (Tyrone Power), a man seemingly falsely accused of murder. Vole’s wife Christine (Marlene Dietrich) must convince the jury that she can testify about her husband in good faith.
Laughton is an unconventional leading man, closer in looks to Winston Churchill than to Jimmy Stewart, and yet he is a whirlwind in this film, stealing every scene in which he appears. Power and Dietrich are also both wonderful, despite Dietrich assuming the worst cockney accent this side of Dick van Dyke in one scene that acts as a rare misstep in the long and distinguished career of director extraordinaire Billy Wilder.
As a courtroom drama, Witness for the Prosecution may not be peerless, but it precedes both Anatomy of a Murder and To Kill a Mockingbird and stands as a giant in what is a crowded field. Come for Wilder’s magnificent direction, stay for Laughton, Power and Dietrich knocking it out of the park, and watch the whole damn thing again for the astonishing denouement.