Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder is based on a real-life murder in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. In the story, a man rapes a woman and her husband later murders that man. The murderer's lawyer argues that the murderer was driven by an irresistible impulse and is therefore not guilty by reason of insanity. I thought the trial portions of this film were quite good, but did not particularly care for anything that took place outside of the trial.

The film stars James Stewart as the defense attorney. While he was pretty good in this film, this is not the best I've seen him. The film also stars a few other people such as George C. Scott, all of whom are pretty good. I was particularly impressed with Joseph N. Welch's performance as the judge. This was Welch's only film as he was best known for being a lawyer during the Army-McCarthy hearings.

This film is notable for being one of the early films to challenge the Hay's Code. The film deals with then taboo themes such as rape and uses language that was pretty coarse for 1959 standards. The film is also noteworthy for being a particularly accurate look at how the legal system works. This is likely due to the fact that the story is based on a true story which was written by a Michigan Supreme Court justice who was a lawyer during the actual case.

My main complaints with this film were that the non-trial portions seemed to go on way too long. While the trial itself was pretty good to watch, I wouldn't rank this as my favorite trial movie either. From the beginning of the film the viewer pretty much knows what the result of the case will likely be. There are no surprise twists at the end of the film and there is nothing particularly surprising that takes place during the trial. I suppose this makes the film more realistic, but I found the surprises in Witness for the Prosecution much more entertaining. This is a decent movie, but not the best film of its genre by any means.

73/100
C-