Movie Screening & Discussion - Witness for the Prosecution

Join Marcus Renna in the Scott Room for a screening and discussion of the 1957 legal mystery thriller film Witness for the Prosecution. Directed by Billy Wilder and starring Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton, and Elsa Lanchester, the film was based on the 1953 play of the same name by Agatha Christie 

Senior barrister Sir Wilfrid Robarts (Laughton), who is recovering from a heart attack, agrees to defend Leonard Vole (Power) over the objections of Robarts' private nurse Miss Plimsoll (Lanchester), as Sir Wilfrid's doctor has warned against taking on criminal cases. Vole is accused of murdering Emily French, a wealthy, childless widow who had fallen in love with him and named him as the main beneficiary in her will. When Sir Wilfrid speaks with Christine (Dietrich), Vole's German wife, she rather unenthusiastically provides her husband with an alibi. However, to Sir Wilfrid's shock, the prosecution introduces Christine as one of their own witnesses, her testimony now that Vole confessed to her that he did kill French. Despairing of the case, Sir Wilfrid is mysteriously contacted by a Cockney woman claiming to have letters written by Christine to a lover planning to frame Vole for the murder. With this evidence in hand, Vole is dramatically acquitted. A shocking twist following the trial untangles the whole complicated, sordid affair, revealing who was lying (and when) and who really killed Emily French.

An acclaimed courtroom drama, Witness for the Prosecution was nominated for six Academy Awards in 1958, including Best Picture. It is popularly held that the determination of United Artists to preserve the surprise ending and the secrecy surrounding the script cost Marlene Dietrich an Academy Award for Best Actress for obscuring the true extent of her role. Agatha Christie reportedly considered it the best film adaptation of any of her work.

A witty, terse, and ingenious mystery with plenty of twists and turns.