Witness for the Prosecution Review

Number 72 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 1957 American courtroom drama Witness for the Prosecution.

Sir Wilfred Robarts (Charles Laughton)- an ageing barrister, takes on one last role before he retires.  Leonard Vole (Tyrone Power) has become accused of killing the wealthy widow Mrs Emily French.  He approaches Sir Wilfred Roberts in the hopes of clearing his name.

There are some films that just don't make much an impression on me and I don't have much to say about them (see M and Double Indemnity,) and this is one of those films.

Witness for the Prosecution is your classic courtroom drama with Sir Wilfred Robarts being very much a grumpy old man.  He is haughty and curmudgeoning and I found him somewhat unlikeable.  Despite how he is in bad health, he doesn't listen to the advice of his.  When his nurse advises that he isn't healthy enough to take the case, he ignores her and takes it anyway.  He believes that Leonard is innocent and is determined to prove it.

To help build his defence, Wilfred goes to visit Leonard's German wife Christine (Marlene Dietrich) and despite being cold and unwelcoming provides a firm alibi for Leonard.  Here I will relent that the film's plot was peppered with a little bit of humour that stopped it from becoming overly-dramatic.  The film flashbacks to where Leonard met Christine as a showgirl in Germany.  Christine lives in an apartment that is falling apart and when Leonard falls on her bed, he causes the whole wall and part of the ceiling to collapse.  This section was very funny and it portrayed Leonard as a likeable if clumsy and foolish young man.

When the actors all signed up to the film, they were under contract to not reveal the film's twist ending.  To the film's credit, I think the ending worked well, as it was unexpected.  Despite how Leonard protests his innocence throughout the film, a performance convincing enough to have him acquitted of all charges, it is revealed that he actually did kill Mrs Emily French.  His wife Christine gives a false testimony and false evidence to clear her husband's name.  Even though she knows he is guilty, she lies to save him.

Leonard protected by double jeopardy openly boasts about how he fooled Wilfred Robarts.  Leonard then callously ends things with Christine in favour of a younger woman.  In a jealous rage, Christine stabs Leonard.  The ending worked well, as it was unexpected.  Hitherto, Leonard Vole gives such a convincing performance that it is difficult not to feel sorry for him.  He seems like a victim of circumstantial evidence and completely innocent of his crime.  This is why the ending is such a shock.  To see Leonard Vole's character transform from a pitiful sorry victim to a callous, malicious individual in the turn of a sixpence was powerful to watch.

So a shorter review for a film that didn't make much of an impression on me.  At times it was funny, at others it was boring and meandering in places, but the ending made up for the film's shortcomings.