Few years
back when I was working on my Masters, I had a student job where we use to help
at the library front desk in our free time. One day a girl came to return the
DVD of On the Waterfront(1954) there. Those were the years that I grew
the most as a cinefile however I had never heard of that film before then. DVD
case of the film introduced it as ‘a winner of 8 Oscars’. The more I found out
about the film, stupider I felt for not knowing about it earlier. Even
more than three years and about thousand films later, some films still make me
feel just as stupid as On the Waterfront did on that day for not having seen them yet. Director Otto
Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder(1959) is one such film or was one such
film until very recently.
Paul
Biegler, small town lawyer from Michigan, served 10 years as a District
Attorney. However after failing to get re-elected in the latest election, he
kind of loses his drive, his passion to practice law again. He feels like
people have told him that he is not good enough or trustworthy enough to get
back into the game. Now he spends most of his time either fishing or drinking with
his alcoholic friend Parnell McCarthy. One fine day Laura Manion, who introduces
herself as wife of US Army Lieutenant Frederick Manion, contacts Biegler to
fight a case for her husband. Frederick Manion has been arrested on the charge
of first-degree murder of an innkeeper, Barney Quill. Laura admits that her
husband has indeed killed Quill but he only did so because Quill put a hand on her
and raped her. Initially he doesn't show much interest, partly due to lack of his courtroom appetite and partly because a skilled lawyer in Biegler realizes that despite strong reason for Lieutenant’s action, it won’t be easy to
win an argument in court on this alone.
However at the behest of his friend McCarthy, he agree to meet Lieutenant and then make his decision whether to take the case or not. After talking to Lieutenant a couple of times, he gets his hands on
something that just might convince the jury to set his client free – to claim
Lieutenant Manion was temporarily insane and Biegler once again sets his foot inside of a courtroom.
I am always
impressed by righteousness of James Stewart characters. Try and think of some
of his most known performances. Let it be It’s a Wonderful Life(1946), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington(1939), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance(1960)
or even The Philadelphia Story(1940), his moral compass always points to
the right direction. He plays a similar character once again with admirable
actions and pure motives like offering his beaten down, on-the-booze friend Mr
McCarthy to help him in the case. Though he does prove himself valuable in the end by getting his hands on an evidence that kind of turns the tide in their favour, I don’t think Biegler really needed him to start with but he
still offers; hoping this might help his friend to get back to some kind of normalcy. However that
is not the only thing about Biegler that deserves a mention.
Paul Biegler
is a skilled lawyer. He knows that sometimes it takes more than just strong
legal arguments in the courtroom to win the case. The way he butters up Judge
Weaver with a frog trap, smartly hidden in the book with the precedence proves
that (I was curious about the sub-plot of temporary judge being from the
outside area. Though both Judge and film makes occasional japes about this
fact, I never got if it had any relevance to the case). Biegler also reminded me of
Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe in a way that he is immune to the charm of
femme fatales like Laure Manion, though he is never coarse with them as his
jovial and affectionate relation with his assistant would imply. Combination of
all this makes for a very simple and earnest but at the same time, an
interesting character.
Lee Remick’s
Laura Manion is another curious specimen. Considering she has gone through
something like this recently, you would think she’d be still in her cocoon. It
might be difficult to reach through to her. In this case, however, you could
not be more wrong. She is frank; she is calm, speaks rather matter-of-factly
and goes about her usual business, flirting with other army officers. That is
until her lawyer snaps at her for endangering her husband’s chances and orders
her to be a ‘meek little housewife’. Ben Gazzara as Lieutenant Frederick Manion
and George C. Scott, in one of his very first roles as the opposing lawyer from the big city, are two more characters worth
mentioning. Freddie Manion, of course Gazzara is
brilliant but, what made him more interesting for me was I was never sure if
the temporary insanity plea was a Biegler's legal tactic to get off easy or a genuine
condition that he goes through up until the very end. The fact that they were
able to sell it, to get me swinging either ways multiple times, should be a
testimony to their acting, directing and also writing by Wendell Mayes based on
a novel by Robert Traver. Almost everyone mentioned so far ended up being nominated for Oscars.
For a film
that spends more than half of its time on proceedings of the case inside of a
courtroom, getting viewers invested into the case is of paramount importance. In
this case, this courtroom drama is very well orchestrated. The trial takes us
through many twists that sometimes work in favour of Manion, sometimes against.
While Prosecution tries to concentrate on Manion’s jealous nature, his history of domestic violence and his
wife’s flirty behaviour with other men as a reason of confrontation between the
two men that resulted in Quill’s murder, they try to bypass the
occurrence of rape completely to save themselves from a potentially embarrassing situation. Biegler, on the other hand, aims straight at it. I was also really impressed by the maturity with which
screenplay handles the whole rape situation and more importantly, Laura’s lost
panties from that night that turn out to be quite an important piece of evidence in making or
breaking this case for either of the sides.
Not only we get the constant
punches thrown at each other by both prosecution and defendant lawyers, it
handles the pauses and twists of the trial brilliantly. Take, for example, a
moment when Stewart’s character asks to look at the murder as a consequence of
rape that preceded it. Both the lawyers have made their point and before giving
his decision, Judge Weaver takes a pause to check his watch. You can almost
sense everyone holding their breath at that instant and a collective sigh of
relief after he rules in favour of Biegler. It’s well executed moments like
these that make Anatomy of a Murder an exciting prospect for, or maybe
even despite, 160+ minutes of its length.
Rating(out of 5):
Great review! I love this film so much. As you mentioned, the performances, direction, and writing are done very well, and it never drags despite its length. I'm a fan of courtroom dramas, and this is one of the best.
ReplyDeleteThanks Josh! It definitely is one of the great courtroom dramas I have seen as well.
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