Cinema
Anatomy of a Murder
Otto Preminger · 1959
Synopsis
In northern Michigan, Paul Biegler, a former prosecutor defeated in his re-election bid, divides his time between fishing and jazz piano. Laura Manion asks him to defend her husband, Lieutenant Frederick Manion, who shot Barney Quill, the owner of an inn in the area: Manion does not deny it and claims that Quill raped his wife. As the accused says he has no memory of the act, Biegler, helped by an old lawyer friend fond of drink and by his secretary, looks for an admissible defence.
Context
The film adapts a novel published in 1958 by John D. Voelker, a judge on the Michigan Supreme Court, under the name Robert Traver; he had drawn it from a 1952 case in which he had defended the accused. Shooting took place on location, in Marquette, Ishpeming and Big Bay, and the courtroom scenes were shot in the real venues in Marquette. The judge is played by Joseph N. Welch, the Army's lawyer during the 1954 Senate hearings, in his only screen role. The music is by Duke Ellington, who appears as a pianist.
Who it is for
A courtroom drama of two hours forty minutes, most of which is taken up by the trial, shot in a real courthouse.
Prizes and reception
Seven Oscar nominations without a win, added in 2012 to the National Film Registry, and regarded, along with one other of his films, as its author's most popular.
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