Anatomy of a Murder: Amazon.ca: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell, Eve Arden, Kathryn Grant, George C. Scott, Orson Bean, Russ Brown, Murray Hamilton, Brooks West, Ken Lynch, Sam Leavitt, Otto Preminger, Louis R. Loeffler, John D. Voelker, Wendell Mayes: DVD

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Amazon.com Essential Video

Otto Preminger turned this 1959 courtroom drama, based on the popular novel, into terrific adult drama. James Stewart stars as a small-town lawyer who defends an army officer (Ben Gazzara) accused of murdering a bartender who assaulted his wife (Lee Remick). The taut script, large performance by Stewart, and then-daring elements of the story (words like "panties" are spoken in the context of discussing a sex crime) give the action a certain immediacy--which you don't find very often in today's movies about jurisprudence. Nice work by Remick and Gazzara, as well as George C. Scott, Arthur O'Connell, and real-life judge Joseph N. Welch, who plays the judge in this film. A very good experience all around. --Tom Keogh

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Customer Reviews

45 Reviews

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
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4.3 out of 5 stars (45 customer reviews)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Great Film, Bad DVD, April 29 2002

By

Rudra Banerji (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Anatomy of a Murder (DVD)

This is a great courtroom drama, possibly one the finest. But the DVD, as a 1.33:1 ratio transfer, is a travesty and insult to Preminger's fine direction and mise en scene. If you need to see the film, please see it on DVD as the transfer is okay, definitely better than VHS, but could be better.

WHen the widescreen (1.85:1) comes out, get that instead. I, for one, thought I'd picked up the original aspect ratio and was quite excited. Now i'm a little upset that the studios are releasing so called "classic films" without treating them with any of the care that classics, like this film and others, so truly deserve. SHAME ON YOU COLUMBIA!

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wears surprisingly well, Aug 22 2002

By

Dennis Littrell (SoCal) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Anatomy of a Murder (VHS Tape)

Otto Preminger, who produced and directed this fine courtroom drama starring James Stewart, Lee Remick, George C. Scott and Ben Gazzara, had a knack for translating best-selling mid-cult novels to the screen (The Man with the Golden Arm (1955); Exodus (1960); Advise and Consent (1962) and others) usually in a nervy manner, sometimes heavy-handed, sometimes pretentious, but always worth a look. Part of his secret was star power. Like Hitchcock, he liked to go with big names supported by fine character actors. And part of his secret was his long experience in both the theater and films going back to the silent film era. He knew how to put together a movie. But more than anything it was his near-dictatorial control over the production (something directors seldom have today, and never in big budget films--Preminger's were big budget for his day) that allowed him to successfully capture the movie-going audience at midcentury.

This and Laura (1944) are two of his films that go beyond the merely commercial and achieve something that can be called art. Seeing this for the first time forty-three years after it was released I was struck by the fine acting all around and the sturdy, well-constructed direction. James Stewart's performance as the Michigan north country lawyer Paul Biegler might shine even more luminously than it does except for a certain performance by Gregory Peck three years later as a southern country lawyer in the unforgettable To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). Lee Remick, in a frank, but imperfect imitation of Marilyn Monroe, co-stars as Laura Manion, the wife of army Lt. Frederick Manion (Gazzara) whom Bielger is defending on a murder charge. The defense is temporary insanity because the man he shot raped his wife. Bielger slyly gains sympathy for his client by deliberately allowing it to come out that Laura is sexy and flirtatious enough to drive any man crazy. Indeed, he tricks the prosecution into doing his work for him. George C. Scott plays Claude Dancer, a big city prosecutor, with snake-like precision while Gazzara manages to combine introspection and cockiness as the young lieutenant. Fine support comes from Eve Arden (best known as Our Miss Brooks on TV and in the movie of that name) as Biegler's loyal secretary and Arthur O'Connell as his alcoholic mentor. Kathryn Grant, who gave up a promising film career to marry Bing Crosby and have children, has a modest role as the murdered man's daughter.

I've seen many courtroom dramas, some real, some fictional, since this film first appeared, but I have to say it stands up well. The action (for the most part) feels realistic and the tension is nicely created and maintained. The resolution is satisfying and the ending is as sly and subtle as any country lawyer might want. Incidentally, if this movie had more total votes cast at IMDb, it would rank in the top one hundred of all time, which is where it belongs.

See this for James Stewart whose easy, adroit style under Preminger's direction found full range. Although he gave many fine performances, I don't think Stewart was ever better than he was here.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Think of it as a Courtroom Film Noir, July 6 2004

By

J - See all my reviews

This review is from: Anatomy of a Murder (DVD)

The excellence is Anatomy of a Murder lies is how it doesn't try to cram itself down your throat. The movie takes its own sweet time telling an intelligent and challenging story. There really aren't any good guys here and there are no easy answers. That's the point of film noir. Everyone is bad in some way, everyone has motives, and happy endings rarely take place in real life. Very direct for a movie made in the late 50's. A woman's alleged rape and the murder of her alleged rapist by her husband is described repeatedly and in detail. James Stewart is surprisingly effective as a weary cynic who takes the case not because he thinks the accused is innocent or a swell guy but because he thinks he can win and get the guy off. After Stewart returned from the horrors of WWII, he turned away from the cheerful harmless fare of his younger days. It can be fairly said that he had two careers. His post war career is much more serious and mature. Introspective characters. Deeply troubled men. Obsessed men. Men of dubious morality and hard bitten practical values. Stewart never made a WWII movie. He didn't need to, he lived it.

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