Witness for the Prosecution | |
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Directed by | Billy Wilder |
Screenplay by | Larry Marcus Billy Wilder Harry Kurnitz |
Based on | The Witness for the Prosecution 1926 story / 1953 play by Agatha Christie |
Produced by | Arthur Hornblow Jr. |
Starring | Tyrone Power Marlene Dietrich Charles Laughton Elsa Lanchester |
Cinematography | Russell Harlan |
Edited by | Daniel Mandell |
Music by | Matty Malneck |
Production company | Edward Small Productions |
Distributed by | United Artists |
Release dates |
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Running time | 116 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $2 million [1] |
Box office | $9 million |
Witness for the Prosecution is a 1957 American legal mystery thriller film directed by Billy Wilder and starring Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton, and Elsa Lanchester. The film, which has elements of bleak black comedy and film noir, is a courtroom drama set in the Old Bailey in London and is based on the 1953 play of the same name by Agatha Christie. The first film adaptation of Christie's story, Witness for the Prosecution was adapted for the screen by Larry Marcus, Harry Kurnitz, and Wilder. The film was acclaimed by critics and received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. It also received five Golden Globes nominations including a win for Elsa Lanchester as Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Additionally, the film was selected as the sixth-best courtroom drama ever by the American Film Institute for their AFI's 10 Top 10 list. [2]
In the film, a man accused of killing a wealthy widow who had named him as the main beneficiary in her will undergoes a trial during which his wife testifies against him.
Senior barrister Sir Wilfrid Robarts, who is recovering from a heart attack, agrees to defend Leonard Vole despite the objections of Robarts' private nurse Miss Plimsoll, as Sir Wilfrid's doctor has warned him against taking any criminal cases. Vole is accused of murdering Emily French, a wealthy, childless widow who had become enamored of him and had named him as the main beneficiary in her will. Strong circumstantial evidence points to Vole as the killer, but Sir Wilfrid believes Vole to be innocent.
When Sir Wilfrid speaks with Vole's German wife Christine, he finds her rather cold and self-possessed, but she does provide an alibi, although it is not entirely convincing. He is greatly surprised when, during the trial, she is summoned as a witness by the prosecuting barrister.
While a wife cannot be compelled to testify against her husband, Christine was still married to Otto Helm, a German man now living in East Germany in the Russian Zone, when she wed Vole (who was in the Royal Air Force and part of the occupation forces in Germany and had married her to help her escape Germany). She testifies that Vole privately confessed to her that he had killed Mrs. French, and her conscience forced her to finally tell the truth.
During the trial in the Old Bailey, Sir Wilfrid is contacted by a mysterious woman who, for a fee, provides him with letters written by Christine to a mysterious lover named Max. The handwriting is genuine, and the woman has a legitimate reason for providing the letters: her face has been scarred and slashed, supposedly by Max. The letters include an account of Max and Christine's plan to kill Leonard, which convinces the jury that Christine had deliberately perjured herself. Leonard is acquitted, much to the crowd's delight.
However, Sir Wilfrid is troubled by the verdict. He is proved correct when Christine, brought into the courtroom for safety after being assailed by the departing crowd for her conduct, tells him that he had help winning the case. Sir Wilfrid had told Christine before the trial that any alibi contributed by a loving wife would not be believed by the jury, so she played a hateful, double-crossing wife and proffered testimony implicating her husband and then forged the letters to the non-existent Max and assumed a disguise to play the mysterious woman who contributed the letters, discrediting her own testimony and leading to the acquittal. She admits that she saved Leonard, although she knew that he was guilty, because she loves him. She accepts that she may be tried for perjury.
Leonard, who has overheard Christine's admission, cheerfully confirms that he indeed killed Mrs. French. Sir Wilfrid is infuriated but helpless to stop Leonard because of double jeopardy laws (since overturned in the United Kingdom) that would prevent a retrial. Christine is shocked to discover that Leonard has been having an affair with a younger woman for whom he plans to abandon Christine, feeling he and Christine are now even because they have saved each other's lives.
Christine angrily grabs a knife and kills Leonard. After she is arrested by the police, Sir Wilfrid, urged on by Miss Plimsoll, declares that he will take on Christine's defense.
Producers Arthur Hornblow and Edward Small bought the rights to the play for $450,000. The play was adjusted to emphasize the character of the defense barrister. [3] Billy Wilder was signed to direct in April 1956. [4] According to Wilder, when the producers approached Marlene Dietrich about the part, she accepted on the condition that Wilder direct. Wilder said that Dietrich liked "to play a murderess" but was "a little bit embarrassed when playing the love scenes." [5]
Vivien Leigh was considered for the role of Christine Vole. [6] Laughton based his performance on Florance Guedella, his own lawyer, an Englishman who was known for twirling his monocle while cross-examining witnesses. [3]
In a flashback showing how Leonard and Christine first meet in a German nightclub, she is wearing her trademark trousers, made famous by Dietrich in director Josef von Sternberg’s film Morocco (1930). [7] A rowdy customer rips them down one side, revealing one of Dietrich's renowned legs and starting a brawl. The scene required 145 extras and 38 stuntmen, and cost $90,000. [8] The bar is called Die blaue Laterne (English: The Blue Lantern), which is a reference to Dietrich's famous film The Blue Angel .
At the end of the film, as the credits roll, a voiceover announces:
The management of this theater suggests that, for the greater entertainment of your friends who have not yet seen the picture, you will not divulge to anyone the secret of the ending of Witness for the Prosecution. [9]
This was in keeping with the advertising campaign for the film. One of the posters said: "You'll talk about it! - but please don't tell the ending!" [10]
The effort to keep the ending a secret extended to the cast. Billy Wilder did not allow the actors to view the final ten pages of the script until it was time to shoot those scenes. The secrecy reportedly cost Marlene Dietrich an Academy Award, as United Artists did not want to call attention to the fact that Dietrich was practically unrecognizable as the Cockney woman who hands over the incriminating letters to the defense. [11]
In a contemporary review for The New York Times , critic Bosley Crowther wrote: "... [T]here'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 ... 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." [4]
Agatha Christie "herself considered it the finest film derived from one of her stories." [12] [13] It currently holds a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 40 reviews with an average rating of 8.7/10. [14] In TV Guide 's review of the film, it received four and a half stars out of five, the writer saying that "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." [15]
The American Film Institute included the film in AFI's 10 Top 10 at #6 in the courtroom-drama category.
The film reached number one at the American box office for two consecutive weeks in February and March 1958. [16]
It earned $3.75 million in its first year. [17]
Witness for the Prosecution was released on DVD by MGM Home Entertainment on December 11, 2001 as a Region 1 widescreen DVD, and by Kino Lorber (under license from MGM) on Blu-ray on July 22, 2014 as a Region 1 widescreen disc.
Billy Wilder was an Austrian-born filmmaker and screenwriter. His career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Classic Hollywood cinema. He received seven Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or and two Golden Globe Awards.
Charles Laughton was a British-American actor. He was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and first appeared professionally on the stage in 1926. In 1927, he was cast in a play with his future wife Elsa Lanchester, with whom he lived and worked until his death.
Marie Magdalene "Marlene" Dietrich was a German and American actress and singer whose career spanned from the 1910s to the 1980s.
Elsa Sullivan Lanchester was a British actress with a long career in theatre, film and television.
The Paradine Case is a 1947 courtroom drama with elements of film noir set in England, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and produced by David O. Selznick. Selznick and an uncredited Ben Hecht wrote the screenplay from an adaptation by Alma Reville and James Bridie of the 1933 novel by Robert Smythe Hichens. The film stars Gregory Peck, Ann Todd, Alida Valli, Charles Laughton, Charles Coburn, Ethel Barrymore, and Louis Jourdan. It tells of an English barrister who falls in love with a woman who is accused of murder, and how it affects his relationship with his wife.
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Sad Cypress is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in March 1940 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edition retailed at eight shillings and threepence (8/3) – the first price rise for a UK Christie edition since her 1921 debut – and the US edition retailed at $2.00.
The Hound of Death and Other Stories is a collection of twelve short stories by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the United Kingdom in October 1933. Unusually, the collection was not published by Christie's regular publishers, William Collins & Sons, but by Odhams Press, and was not available to purchase in shops.
"The Witness for the Prosecution" is a short story and play by British author Agatha Christie. The story was initially published as "Traitor's Hands" in Flynn's, a weekly pulp magazine, in the edition of 31 January 1925.
Witness for the Prosecution is a play adapted by Agatha Christie from her 1925 short story "Traitor's Hands". The play opened in London on 28 October 1953 at the Winter Garden Theatre. It was produced by Sir Peter Saunders.
Rembrandt is a 1936 British biographical film made by London Film Productions of the life of 17th-century Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn. The film was produced and directed by Alexander Korda from a screenplay by June Head and Lajos Bíró based on a story by Carl Zuckmayer. The music score was by Geoffrey Toye and the cinematography by Georges Périnal.
The 15th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film for 1957 films, were held on February 22, 1958.
Libel is a 1959 British drama film starring Olivia de Havilland, Dirk Bogarde, Paul Massie, Wilfrid Hyde-White and Robert Morley. The film's screenplay was written by Anatole de Grunwald and Karl Tunberg from a 1935 play of the same name by Edward Wooll.
Arthur Hornblow Jr. was an American film producer. Four of his movies received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture.
Witness for the Prosecution may refer to:
Witness for the Prosecution is a 1982 American made-for-television drama film version of Agatha Christie's 1925 short story and 1953 play, and also a remake of the Billy Wilder film Witness for the Prosecution (1957).
Marlene Dietrich was a German and American actress and singer.
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The Witness for the Prosecution is a 2016 British mystery drama thriller television serial broadcast on BBC One over Christmas 2016. The two-part programme was adapted by Sarah Phelps and directed by Julian Jarrold and is based on Agatha Christie's short story of the same name. The expanded plot is based on Christie's original short story with the original ending, which is different than that of previous stage, film and television versions, including Billy Wilder's 1957 film version.
Truth Has a Voice is an Egyptian drama film released in 1976. It was directed by Hassan al-Imam as a kind of remake of his earlier 1951 release حكم القوى, starring Mohsen Sarhan and Huda Sultan. The 1976 edition features a screenplay based on a novel by French author Jules Mary with Egyptian dialogue localized by al-Imam. Soheir Ramzi, Nabila Ebeid, Yousuf Shaaban, and Samir Sabri star in a tale of a song-and-dance troupe mired in massive debt. The theatre company stumbles into a mystery when one of the leaders is found by another murdered after a dispute with a lender. The film premiered in Egyptian theaters on December 20, 1976.