27 Days With Billy Wilder And Me

Billy Wilder’s sixteenth movie, Witness For the Prosecution, starring Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton, and Elsa Lanchester, was released in 1957. Billy was 51 years old.

After watching The Spirit of 76 and Love in the Afternoon — two of Billy Wilder’s weaker movies — Witness For the Prosecution looks like an Academy-Award winner.

Even without the previous two clunkers, Witness For the Prosecution stands on its own as a very good movie. Charles Laughton, alone, is worth the price of admission. But, an admission: I love courtroom dramas. Some of my favorite movies take place in the courtroom. The higher the stakes, the more clever the revelation of facts, the more taut the dialogue, the better it is. Witness For the Prosecution features a compelling story and a twist of an ending. It’s a corker.

Written by Billy Wilder, Harry Kurnitz, and Larry Marcus, Witness For the Prosecution is based on the play by Agatha Christie, the world’s most popular mystery writer.

This is another plus for me. I’ve been reading Agatha Christie lately. And loving it. Hercule Poirot is The Man.

Back to the movie.

Charles Laughton plays a curmudgeonly barrister (“I am a mean, ill-tempered man who hates to lose”) with a bad heart who would rather try murder cases and smoke cigars than retire. Tyrone Power plays a man accused of murder who comes to see him. The aging barrister, against the advice of his maidservant (played by Elsa Lanchester), decides to take the case.

Tryone Power, known as one of the great swashbucklers, died of a heart attack while making the movie after this one. Witness For the Prosecution was Power’s last completed movie. He was only 44. This was also the last screen performance for legendary character actor Una O’Connor, who played the murdered woman’s housekeeper. O’Connor also appeared in the classic movie The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Errol Flynn.

Sadly, Marlene Dietrich performs another German cabaret song, this time with an accordion, surely one of the world’s most annoying instruments. I don’t get that monotone torch-singer persona. It’s not attractive in the least. To me, anyway.

I didn’t know that Charles Laughton was married to Elsa Lanchester until his death in 1962.

Principle Cast:
Leonard Vole……………………………………Tyrone Power (1914-1958)
Christine (“Mrs.” Vole)……………………….Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992)
Sir Wilfrid…………………………………………Charles Laughton (1899-1962)
Miss Plimsoll…………………………………….Elsa Lanchester (1902-1986)
Brogan-Moore …………………………………….John Williams (1903-1983)
Janet……………………………………………….Una O’Connor (1880–1959)