A Movie Nearly Every Night: Anatomy of a Murder

Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

Dir. Otto Preminger

Starring: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell, Eve Arden


It's a kooky little courtroom drama that pushes some pretty big buttons. I know! Cinema nice guy Jimmy Stewart playing loveable small-town lawyer defending creepy Ben Gazzara for murder? All this and no surprises, but, really, there are a few.

For starters there's never a doubt that Gazzara's Lt. Manion killed the guy -- he walks into a bar with a luger and shoots a bartender who had raped his wife: "I've got the unwritten law on my side," he says. When his lawyer Paul Biegler (Jimmy Stewart) tells him there's no such thing and he's got to come up with something better you can see the confidence drain out of Manion and then bounce up again in anger and deviance. He's a tricky little thinker, Manion, and Biegler, all nice-guy exterior, is a big manipulator of people and sees his chance to manipulate Manion into an insanity plea. Loveable + creepy = cynical dream team.

Manion and "10 guys who made the grade" behind him

There's no way Biegler can win, but he wants the challenge of seeing if he can get a jury to buy into Manion's lie. Innocent by reason of insanity? So very thin, so Biegler plays up the nice guy, the local guy, the every man, who fishes for trout and is beloved by his co-workers even though he can't afford to pay them.

You're paying me in fish again this week ... aren't you?

On the occasional weekends he even plays jazz piano with Duke Ellington.

He's just an ordinary guy. Unknowingly the prosecution helps Biegler out with this by double-decking the prosecuting legal counsel with the addition of Asst. State Attorney (and cross-examination pit bull) Claude Dancer, played by George C. Scott. It's two against one and America loves the underdog, friends. What was the prosecution thinking?

4 men trying to come up with a "nice" term for "panties"

The drama is not so much proving innocence or guilt, but which one of these guys, Biegler or Dancer, is going to win the pissing match. Will the jury dig Dancer's confidence and the fact that he's right 90% of the time? Will they like that he's actually got evidence on his side and a nasty character witness?

Because what does Biegler have other than his small-town gosh oh gee charm? His defendant is a punchy jerk with a short temper and his wife, Laura, is an unreliable party girl, who goes out dancing even while her husband's in stir.

"The kind men try to take advantage of ... and do"

There's no physical evidence to work with (although Biegler gets lucky later) and character witnesses all seem confirm the worst about his client.

So he puts Mrs. Manion in a girdle and glasses, which hardly looks natural --


And brings out the cute dog --- look how he carries the flashlight, isn't that the sweetest, most unnecessary addition to this testimony?


And things go well --- Biegler introduces things like spermatogenesis and rape ("How can a jury disregard what they've already heard?""They can't") to sneak in his side case, the "unwritten law" that Manion loves so much and that a jury might still hook onto --- until a cell mate of Manion's blows everything to hell. Then it's time to bring in the big guns.

That I'll leave for you to see. All's well that doesn't really end well for Biegler, but somehow you feel he gets what he deserves.

Alternative viewing options: Just watch the first 20 minutes for examples of rubber catch bags


And a whole collection of field wear. Is that a Pendleton shirt?