IMDB Top 250 Challenge – Movie #4 – Witness For The Prosecution

Witness For The Prosecution (1957) – IMDB Rank #102

Watched 12/1/13

I admit it – this is a movie I had to look up because I had no idea what it was. Then I saw it was an Agatha Christie story and I’ve been saying lately how I should really read one of her books someday. And it was on TV so I was able to watch it (I’ve really lucked out – lots of movies from the top 250 have been on TV the past couple of weeks so I’ve recorded them. Bonus!).

This was the first Marlene Dietrich movie I’ve seen (I know – I really need to watch more old movies). She’s very good in this (of course – I assumed she was famous for a reason!). And Charles Laughton was great in this. I’m sorry – I don’t know him! I’ve looked him up & he’s been in some very big, famous movies. Sorry – I’m trying to watch older stuff more! 🙂 I didn’t expect the comedy that was in this – the exchanges between his character & the nurse were funny. I shall try to watch one of his other movies! Tyrone Power was also good as the one accused of murder. Nope – don’t know him either! Okay – I suck at reviews of old movies.

Onto the movie and the story – I really did enjoy this movie. As with many old movies, it took a while to get going. Yes, I do have an okay attention span (unlike many young people of today – can you imagine them sitting through credits at the START of a movie these days?!). 😉 However, it WAS almost an hour before they finally got to the trial. Then the story picks up.

The mystery is a pretty good one but not too complex, really. I don’t want to give anything away but SMALL SPOILER WARNING: Let’s just say The Prestige is one of my favorite movies so I wasn’t fooled… 😉

Overall, this is a good little courtroom drama mystery with some wonderful acting and some surprisingly fun banter. Thumbs up. I’ll watch some more old shit now… 🙂

My Rating: 7/10