ANATOMY OF A MURDER (1959)

Top-flight courtroom drama from Otto Preminger made during the mid-‘50s to mid-‘60s peak of his independent run.  The only one of the group not shot in WideScreen to really come off.*  (Did cinematographer Sam Leavitt convince Preminger that location shooting in featureless areas of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and in the tight interior spaces of actual homes would be challenging in CinemaScope and impossible in 70mm?)  Whatever the reason, the loss in visual flair helps rather than hurts Preminger’s expert presentation as low-profile attorney James Stewart (with alcoholic legal pal Arthur O’Connell & down-to-earth office assistant Eve Arden) takes on a newsworthy murder case after Ben Gazzara’s insolent army lieutenant murders the popular local bar owner who roughed up and raped flirty wife Lee Remick.  With George C. Scott making a big, early impression as a hot shot prosecutor brought up from Lansing, MI.  But everyone in here brings something special to the table, none more so than in the homey line readings of the Judge brought in to handle the case, played by true American hero Joseph N. Welsh, the lawyer who brought down Senator Joe McCarthy with a single line, ‘Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?’  Yet the biggest surprise of the thing is . . . that there’s still surprise to the thing.  That is, these sort of dramas have grown so ubiquitous, so sophisticated, so groundbreaking, it’s hard to fathom just how fresh and entertaining this continues to be six+ decades on.  And even with the loss of former shock value (Preminger must have been delighted with the number of times ‘Panties’ is spoken, an extra ten thou in ticket sales at every utterance!), now that we’re unfazed by such things, the film only looks better than it did on release.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY/LINK:  *The ‘flat’ aspect ratio Preminger pics that don’t come off in this period are MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM/’55 and SAINT JOAN/’57.  In general, beginning with CARMEN JONES/’55, Preminger’s films really ‘swing’ when shot WideScreen. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2013/06/saint-joan-1957.html   https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2012/10/carmen-jones-1954_8327.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: The pulsating music Duke Ellington composed for the film is the first jazz score in a mainstream pic not about the jazz world or placed in an urban setting.  It threw people off when the film came out, but now seems perfectly natural.