"Witness for the Prosecution"

[youtalkfunny]

When first assembling my NetFlix queue, I asked for "courtroom drama" suggestions. "Witness for the Prosecution" got a lot of run, so it was high on my list. I watched it today.

Charles Laughton (who had played Capt Bligh opposite Clark Gable about 30 years earlier) is the lovable, grumpy old man lawyer. Tyrone Power comes to him when he is charged for murder. Power's only alibi is his wife, Marlene Dietrich. She's not too convincing, so Laughton decides not to use her. So the prosecution finds a loophole, and compels her to testify as the "Witness for the Prosecution".

My take:

--Billy Wilder directed, so right away, you know it's worth watching.

--Based on an Agatha Christie play. That girl knew her stuff.

--Laughton is fantastic. He's the reason you should watch this film. He looks good in that "British Lawyer" wig, too.

--Marlene Dietrich. Wow, I had no idea. I had never seen her before. It turns out that Madeline Kahn's impersonation of her in "Blazing Saddles" was spot-on. Every time Marlene Dietrich spoke in her Elmer-Fudd-meets-Colonel-Klink voice, I busted out laughing, even though she has no funny lines.

Actually, she did have some funny lines: the awful song they gave her to sing, where she sounds, once again, like Madeline Kahn making fun of her.

She's supposed to be this big sexpot from back in the day, but she dresses like an old woman in this one, save for one brief moment when her pants leg is torn, exposing one awesome looking leg. It looks like Billy Wilder had a hottie to work with, and decided not to flaunt it. Too bad for us.

The film is famous for its surprise ending (a voice-over during the closing credits urged theatergoers to resist the urge to spill the beans to their friends), which may have been novel back then, but it's been done 1000 times since.

As much a fan of courtroom fare that I am, I still came close to giving this one a thumbs down. I couldn't take Dietrich seriously. Put any other actress in that role, and the film gets an extra star on the 1-4 star rating system. The twists were laughable, especially the anonymous tipster who offers up the key evidence on the last day of the trial.

Only Laughton's enjoyable performance saves this one.

I give it two stars out of four: watch it if there's nothing else on.