Witness for the Prosecution **** (1957, Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester, John Williams, Una O’Connor, Henry Daniell, Ian Wolfe) – Classic Movie Review 2576

Co-writer/director Billy Wilder’s excellent 1957 movie version of Agatha Christie’s ingenious if a shade creaky London-set courtroom thriller is witty, suspenseful and hugely entertaining. Christie’s 1952 international stage success is based on her 1925 short story Traitor’s Hands, which she renamed as Witness for the Prosecution when it was reprinted in the 1930s.

It is notable for its wonderfully rich comic tour-de-force star turn by Charles Laughton as Sir Wilfred Robarts, the testy old defence lawyer of American war veteran Leonard Vole (Tyrone Power), an out of work, struggling inventor who is charged with murdering a wealthy, elderly widow of his acquaintance, Emily French (Norma Varden).

But its is also distinguished by three other outstanding performances – from Laughton’s wife Elsa Lanchester as his fussy, over-protective private nurse Miss Plimsoll, from femme fatale Marlene Dietrich as Power’s enigmatic wife Christine Vole, and from John Williams as Brogan-Moore.

It looks bad for Leonard Vole. Despite being happily married to East German former beer hall performer Christine, he has fostered a friendship with lonely Mrs French hoping she would finance one of his inventions.

Wilder successfully turns a stage show into a movie by opening out the drama from its sole courtroom setting through adding numerous scenes, changing the emphasis from Leonard Vole to Sir Wilfrid Robarts and adding the Miss Plimsoll character. Vole’s wife’s named is changed from Romaine to Christine.

Una O’Connor as Janet is the only member of the original Broadway cast of the play to repeat her role on film. Also in the cast are Henry Daniell, Ian Wolfe, Torin Thatcher, Francis Compton, Philip Tinge, Ruta Lee, Marjorie Eaton, Franklyn Farnum, Bess Flowers, Colin Kenny, Ottola Nesmith, William H O’Brien, J Pat O’Malley, Molly Roden, Jeffery Sayre, Norbert Schiller and Ben Wright.

The expensive ($75,000) courtroom set is a recreation of one in the Old Bailey, London’s Central Criminal Courts. It is a significant character in the drama.

Alfred Hitchcock said: ‘Many times, people have told me how much they enjoyed Witness for the Prosecution. They thought it was my film. Wilder told me people asked him about The Paradine Case (1947), thinking he had done it.’

Laughton modelled his characterisation on Florance Guedella, an Englishman who was both his and Dietrich’s monocle-twirling lawyer.

It is the last of 12 films in which Lanchester appears with Laughton, most notably The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) and Rembrandt (1936).

It was remade for TV as Witness for the Prosecution in 1982 with Deborah Kerr, Ralph Richardson, Beau Bridges, Donald Pleasence, Wendy Hiller and Diana Rigg.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2576

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