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A matter of "making a lot of noise" versus "racking up all the points," the process of justice or perhaps filmmaking, Otto Preminger's courtroom is a balanced screen and vice versa. The former D.A. (James Stewart) has a fridge full of fish from cooling his heels for a decade, stepping back into the legal arena means less time for jamming with Duke Ellington but also a chance for his colleague (Arthur O'Connell) to crawl out of the bottle. "The lady in the case" (Lee Remick) conceals a shiner behind shades, her husband (Ben Gazzara) is a Korean War vet on trial for shooting her rapist, histories of violence and promiscuity to be pounced on by the prosecutor (George C. Scott). Overseeing all is Joseph N. Welch as the avuncular gnome in the bench. "Just answer the questions. The attorneys will provide the wisecracks." The absolute culmination of Preminger's canny mise en scène and pragmatic wit, a steely intelligence atomizing the "disorganized soul" of individual and system alike. "Irresistible impulse" is the defense the accused clings to, his lawyer operates with subtle nudging, "see if you can remember just how crazy you were." Doubt laid out with utmost clarity is one paradox among many, front and center is the simultaneous classicism and modernity of Stewart showcasing his homespun persona while exposing it as a persona. (Immaculately composed, cinema's surfaces can come apart as starkly as the limbs and torso of the Saul Bass credits.) Nothing like a cool mind and a sharp eye for "the natural impurities of the law," for telling exchanges of glances in the corner of a deep-focus frame, for the judge winding his pocket watch during a lull in the proceedings. "People are many things." The search for truth leads to high heels in a trailer-park garbage drum, and there's L'Avventura the next year. Cinematography by Sam Leavitt. With Eve Arden, Kathryn Grant, Murray Hamilton, Orson Bean, Russ Brown, Brooks West, Ken Lynch, John Qualen, Howard McNear, and Jimmy Conlin. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |