☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½
Witness for the Prosecution
(1957) – B. Wilder
That nagging feeling that I’d seen this before didn’t show up until very
near the end of Witness for the Prosecution and I can’t genuinely be sure that
it wasn’t because Billy Wilder purposefully tipped his hand about the final
plot twists yet to come. You see, this
is one of those famous films that you are not supposed to talk about – but, you
see, I’d forgotten that and probably you should too. Charles Laughton is a famous barrister who
has just suffered a heart attack but is lured back to the courtroom to defend
Tyrone Power (in his last film role) who is accused of murder and confronting a
damning amount of circumstantial evidence. Marlene Dietrich plays his wife – the witness
for the prosecution – who throws a monkey-wrench into the defense. Laughton, Power, and Dietrich play to their
strengths and the result is nothing less than gripping. Even if you may have seen it before.
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