Billy Wilder was always a director who gave meticulous attention to the writing in his films. So the idea that Wilder would adapt a short story from Agatha Christie, one of the most widely loved, respected, and read writers of the era, seems like a stroke of genius. The result was Witness for the Prosecution, a courtroom drama following the grouchy English barrister Sir Wilfrid Robarts (played by the delightfully acerbic Charles Laughton) as he takes on his first murder cast after suffering a heart attack. Accompanied by his ever-cheerful private nurse Miss Plimsoll (Elsa Lanchester), he must defend his client Leonard Vole (Tyrone Power) from a charge of murdering a wealthy widow after getting her to make him the main beneficiary of her will. The case is complicated when Vole's German wife Christine (Marlene Dietrich) appears as a witness for the prosecution and claims that he did commit the murder. Wilder's subdued style that sought to not draw attention to itself away from the writing aided in bringing Christie's story to life. Although the film seems carried by Laughton, in the end we are shocked by the revelation that Dietrich has been stealing the show from him the entire time without the audience noticing until the very end. I won't spoil the twist ending, but suffice it to say that it was one of the few times that I didn't see a major plot twist coming.
7/10
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