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.
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.
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):
