|
|
|
|
Anatomy of a Murder
|
| |
|
| |
Anatomy of a Murder is an American trial court drama film directed by Otto Preminger and written by Wendell Mayes based on the best-selling novel of the same name written by Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D. Voelker under the pen name Robert Traver. Traver based the novel on a 1952 murder case in which he was the defense attorney. The picture stars Jimmy Stewart, George C. Scott, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell, Eve Arden, Kathryn Grant, Brooks West (Arden's real-life husband), Orson Bean, and Murray Hamilton.
he Upper Peninsula of Michigan, small-town lawyer Paul Biegler (James Stewart), a prosecuting attorney who lost his re-election bid, takes the case of loutish Army Lieutenant Frederic Manion (Ben Gazzara), charged with first degree murder for shooting a barkeeper who allegedly raped Manion's flirtatious wife, Laura (Lee Remick).
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Anatomy of a Murder' Start a new discussion about 'Anatomy of a Murder' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
Anatomy of a Murder is an American trial court drama film directed by Otto Preminger and written by Wendell Mayes based on the best-selling novel of the same name written by Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D. Voelker under the pen name Robert Traver. Traver based the novel on a 1952 murder case in which he was the defense attorney. The picture stars Jimmy Stewart, George C. Scott, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell, Eve Arden, Kathryn Grant, Brooks West (Arden's real-life husband), Orson Bean, and Murray Hamilton.
Plot
In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, small-town lawyer Paul Biegler (James Stewart), a prosecuting attorney who lost his re-election bid, takes the case of loutish Army Lieutenant Frederic Manion (Ben Gazzara), charged with first degree murder for shooting a barkeeper who allegedly raped Manion's flirtatious wife, Laura (Lee Remick). Matched against a high-powered big city prosecutor (George C. Scott) sent by the Governor to help out the local D.A. (Brooks West), Biegler and his alcoholic colleague Parnell McCarthy (Arthur O'Connell) and sardonic secretary Maida Rutledge (Eve Arden) try to win Manion's freedom with a defense of irresistible impulse -- a claimed part of an insanity defense. Biegler's folksy speech and laid-back demeanor hide a sharp legal mind and a propensity for courtroom theatrics that have the visiting judge (real life lawyer Joseph N. Welch, of Army-McCarthy hearings fame, in his only film role -- he took it only after Preminger agreed to let Welch's wife be on the jury) busy keeping things under control.
The original murder that inspired this occurred at Big Bay Point Light at a time when it was being used to house Army personnel; but in the book and screenplay takes place in a 'Yooper' bar.
Production
The movie, inspired by a 1952 Big Bay Lumberjack Tavern murder trial in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, was adapted by Wendell Mayes from the novel by Robert Traver (pen name of John D. Voelker, a Michigan Supreme Court judge from 1957-1959).
It was filmed in Big Bay, Marquette, Ishpeming, and Michigamme, Michigan. Some scenes were actually filmed in the Thunder Bay Inn in Big Bay, Michigan, one block from the Lumberjack Tavern, the site of a murder that had inspired much of the novel.
The movie was directed by Otto Preminger, and was noted for featuring unusually frank dialogue for 1959. It was among the first Hollywood films to challenge the Hays Code, along with Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot (1959) and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960).
The role of the judge was offered to both Spencer Tracy and Burl Ives, but ultimately went to Joseph Welch, a real-life lawyer who had made a name for himself when representing the United States Army in hearings conducted by Senator Joseph McCarthy. It was Welch who famously asked of McCarthy, "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" It is to be noted that the judge is a self-effacing and modest arbiter, who strives to work in the community to which he is transplanted, respecting its customs and folkways, while trying to keep the case on an even keel toward a reasonable (not necessarily perfect) resolution, based upon the record presented and the mandates imposed by law.
Cast
Cast notes:
- Chicago newspaper columnist Irv "Kup" Kupcinet has a small uncredited role in the film, and Joseph Welch's wife appears as a juror, also uncredited. Duke Ellington appears as "Pie-Eye", the owner of a roadhouse, with whom Jimmy Stewart's character plays piano.
Soundtrack
Anatomy of a Murder is noteworthy for being one of the first films to extensively feature jazz in the musical score – the entire musical soundtrack was composed by Duke Ellington and played by his orchestra. Several of the Ellington band's sidemen, notably Johnny Hodges, Paul Gonsalves, Harry Carney, Russell Procope, and William "Cat" Anderson, are heard prominently throughout the film, and Ellington himself appears briefly as "Pie-Eye," the owner of a roadhouse where Paul Biegler (Stewart) and Laura Manion (Remick) have a confrontation.
Despite being heard "in bits and pieces" the score "contains some of his most evocative and eloquent music. . . . and beckons with the alluring scent of a femme fatale." Including small pieces by Billy Strayhorn, film historians recognize it "as a landmark -- the first significant Hollywood film music by African Americans comprising non-diegetic music, that is, music whose source is not visible or implied by action in the film, like an on-screen band." The score avoids cultural stereotypes which previously characterized jazz scores and "rejected a strict adherence to visuals in ways that presaged the New Wave cinema of the ’60s."
The score employs a "handful of themes, endlessly recombined and re-orchestrated. Ellington never wrote a melody more seductive than the hip-swaying “Flirtibird,” featuring the "irresistibly salacious tremor" by Johnny Hodges on the alto saxophone. "A stalking back-beat barely contains the simmering violence of the main title music" The score is heavily dipped in "the scent of the blues and Ellington’s orchestra bursts with color."
Detroit Free Press music critic Mark Stryker concludes: "Though indispensible, I think the score is too sketchy to rank in the top echelon among Ellington-Strayhorn masterpiece suites like Such Sweet Thunder and The Far East Suite, but its most inspired moments are their equal."
The soundtrack, containing thirteen tracks, was released on May 29, . A CD was released in April 28, . and reissued by Sony in a deluxe edition in 1999.
Legal aspects
The film examines the apparent fallibility of the human factor in jurisprudence. In various ways all of the human components – the counsels for defense and prosecution, the defendant and his wife, and the witnesses – have different positions on what is right or wrong, and varying perspectives of what constitutes: integrity and justice; moral and immoral; ethical and not.
One controversial legal issue in this film is possible witness coaching, a violation of legal canons. The only plausible defense Lt. Manion has – the insanity defense – is virtually spelled out to a befuddled Manion by his prospective counsel, who then temporarily suspends the conversation and suggests that Manion rethink his factual/legal position. Witness coaching by the prosecution is even more blatant as they call in other jail inmates awaiting sentencing to testify against Manion, and is portrayed as subornation of perjury to an extent. The first suggests that the defendant may be concealing the truth and manipulating his story in order to obtain the best possible verdict, and the latter that the prosecution dangled a possible lighter sentence (See also, Plea bargain) as an incentive to perjury.
Thus, there could be a synergy: compounding the inherent fallible nature of the process with the malleability of memory, the potential mendacity of witnesses, the showmanship and magic tricks involved in trials and advocacy, and the self interest, venality, morality, and ethical standards of the participants.
In protracted litigation, confabulated memory – filling in the blanks and recreating memories – is common, and research has documented the tendency. Repetitive and suggestive questioning tends to plant the seeds of memory. This book and the movie are among the most cogent examples of the lawyers' dance. “Horse shedding" of witnesses is well known, if controversial and potentially unethical; it is not just an occasion to directly orchestrate perjury. More problematic, it is probable to reach a point where “if you believe it, then it isn’t a lie.” Thus, even letter-perfect bona fide certainty of belief is not equivalent to a certification of accuracy or even truthfulness. This process is called "horse shedding," "sandpapering" or "wood shedding" – the first and last names relating to the place of the "collaboration."
Comparisons of film to novel
The issue of the insanity defense was more thoroughly explored in the novel, and a key scene in which Biegler destroys the credibility and professionalism of the prosecution's psychiatric expert for proffering an opinion without examining the subject is watered down in the film almost to insignificance.
Critical reception
UCLA law professor, Michael Asimow, calls the picture "probably the finest pure trial movie ever made." It is noteworthy that some law school professors use it as a teaching tool, as it encompasses (from the defense standpoint) all of the basic stages in the U.S. criminal justice system, from client interview and arraignment through trial.
Critics note, among other things, the moral ambiguity, where small town lawyers triumph by guile, stealth and trickery. They note that this may be Preminger's finest movie, and laud the performances (especially of Jimmy Stewart in his "finest performance") and highly-regarded performances by Lee Remick and George C. Scott. The movie is frank, even brutal in its approach. Language and sexual themes are direct, forceful and unblinking, at variance with the times (and other movies) when it was produced. The black and white palette is seen as a complement to the harsh Upper Peninsula landscape. The movie is "made in black-and-white but full of local color".
New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther thought the film was an excellent example of how trial courtroom dramas should be filmed, and wrote,
After watching an endless succession of courtroom melodramas that have more or less transgressed the bounds of human reason and the rules of advocacy, it is cheering and fascinating to see one that hews magnificently to a line of dramatic but reasonable behavior and proper procedure in a court. Such a one is Anatomy of a Murder, which opened at the Criterion and the Plaza yesterday. It is the best courtroom melodrama this old judge has ever seen. . . . Outside of the fact that this drama gets a little tiring in spots—in its two hours and forty minutes, most of which is spent in court—it is well nigh flawless as a picture of an American court at work, of small-town American characters and of the average sordidness of crime.
In 1989, the American Bar Association rated this as one of the twelve best trial movies of all time. In addition to its acclaim of the plot and the musical score, the article noted: "But the film's real highlight is its ability to demonstrate how a legal defense is developed in a difficult case. How many trial films would dare spend so much time watching lawyers do what many lawyers do most (and enjoy least) -- research?"
In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten top Ten" -- the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Anatomy of a Murder was acknowledged as the seventh best film in the courtroom drama genre.
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 100% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on thirty-six reviews.
"Over the years, the movie's reputation has grown. Many movie buffs believe that its frank talk and adult subject matter (along with that of Psycho and Some Like It Hot challenged the censorship guidelines the film industry" labored under at the time.
Awards and honors
Wins
- New York Film Critics Circle Awards: NYFCC Award Best Actor, James Stewart, Best Screenplay, Wendell Mayes; 1959.
- Venice Film Festival: Volpi Cup; Best Actor, James Stewart; 1959.
- Two Grammy Awards: Grammy; Best Soundtrack Album, Background Score from Motion Picture or Television, Duke Ellington; 1959.
- Laurel Awards: Golden Laurel; Top Drama; Top Male Dramatic Performance, James Stewart; Top Male Supporting Performance, Arthur O'Connell; 1960.
- Michigan Product of the Year.
Nominations
- Academy Awards: Oscar; Best Actor in a Leading Role, James Stewart; Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Arthur O'Connell; Best Actor in a Supporting Role, George C. Scott; Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Sam Leavitt; Best Film Editing, Louis R. Loeffler; Best Picture Otto Preminger; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, Wendell Mayes; 1960.
- British Academy of Film and Television Arts: BAFTA Film Award, Best Film from any Source, Otto Preminger, USA; Best Foreign Actor, James Stewart, USA; Most Promising Newcomer, Joseph N. Welch, USA; 1960.
- Directors Guild of America: DGA Award Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures, Otto Preminger; 1960.
- Golden Globe Award: Golden Globe; Best Motion Picture - Drama; Best Motion Picture Actress - Drama, Lee Remick; Best Motion Picture Director, Otto Preminger; Best Supporting Actor, Joseph N. Welch; 1960.
Stage adaptation
After Traver's novel was published, St. Martins Press planned to have it adapted for the stage, intending a Broadway production, which would then be made into a film. Before he died in December 1957, John Van Druten wrote a rough draft of the play adaptation. Some time after that, the publisher then made the film rights available, and these were purchased by Otto Preminger.
Eventually, Traver's book was adapted for the stage in 1963 by Elihu Winer. It premiered at the Mill Run Theater in suburban Chicago, and was published in 1964 by Samuel French.
Bibliography
- Robert Traver. Anatomy of a Murder New York: St. Martin's Press, 1958. ISBN 978-0517204450
- Elihu Winer. Anatomy of a Murder: A Court-Drama in Three Acts New York: Samuel French, 1964. ISBN 0573605300.
External links
|
| |
|
|
