Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Directed by Billy Wilder
An ailing barrister is thrust back into the courtroom in what becomes one of the most unusual and eventful murder cases of the lawyer's career when he finds himself defending a man being tried for the murder of a socialite.
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What critics compared Witness for the Prosecution to
And Richard Kind pops up at one point for a segment called “Girl Talk,” where he extols the virtues of the 1957 Billy Wilder film Witness for the Prosecution to several female Bunch members.
Consider the show-within-a-show “Girl Talk,” with 62-year-old character actor Richard Kind as the host, telling his guests (all members of the Sack Lunch Bunch, all aspiring actors) his favorite movie is “Witness for the Prosecution” and offering invaluable advice.
A game O’Hara does her best Marlene Dietrich a la “Witness for the Prosecution.” Cranston also adds amusing beats to a one-note character.
In fact, my first exposure to it came when it was paired Rene Clair’s And Then There Were None (1945) on an Agatha Christie double-bill at Florida State University.
Putting aside my own fuzzy feelings for this property (I appeared in two separate high school productions during the 1980s, portraying the playboy in 10th grade and the detective in 12th grade), this isn't the best screen Christie — that honor belongs to 1957's Witness for the Prosecution — but it easily snags second place.
He studies clips of Marlene Dietrich in Witness for the Prosecution to craft the perfect alibi with the same kind of genius manipulation, and studies various crime films to prepare his family for interrogation.
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The courtroom thriller used to be a staple of big-studio "adult" product, and the genre produced some notable --Â some would have said "important" --Â pictures over the course of its long heyday, from " Witness for the Prosecution " and " Anatomy of a Murder " in the '50s to " The Verdict " and, God help us, " Jagged Edge " in the '80s.
"A Few Good Men" doesn't pack the surprises of "Witness for the Prosecution," nor does it probe very deeply into the psyche of men who exercise the power of dictators in a society that congratulates itself on its freedoms.
Taking narrative cues from Witness for the Prosecution or A Few Good Men means the proceedings don’t overstay their welcome or feel like a bunch of shorts stitched together.