Daily Archives: June 10, 2016

Witness for the Prosecution
Directed by Billy Wilder
Written by Billy Wilder and Harry Kurnitz; adapted by Lawrence B. Marcus from the play by Agatha Christie
1957/USA
Edward Small Productions/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant

Sir Wilfrid: If you were a woman, Miss Plimsoll, I would strike you.

I don’t know how this missed the 1001 Movies List.  Maybe there were too many Billy Wilder films on it already?

Irascible barrister Sir Wilfred Roberts (Charles Laughton) has just been just been released (make that expelled) from the hospital following a heart attack.  He is under strict instructions to refrain from tobacco and alcohol, get plenty of bed rest, and avoid too much excitement.  Nurse Miss Plimsol (Elsa Lanchester) has come home with him to enforce the doctor’s orders, mostly with heaping helpings of baby talk.  Sir Wilfred makes it his mission to foil her at every turn.

“Too much excitement” definitely includes working on his beloved criminal cases. Then a friend comes in with Leonard Vole (Tyrone Power). It looks like Vole is the prime suspect in the murder of the middle-aged woman who was his friend. Things look very bad for the unemployed Vole who was with the victim that evening. His only alibi is his wife. At first, Sir Wilfred refers him to one of his firms other lawyers. After questioning the man and deciding he is innocent, Sir Wilfred can’t resist the challenge. When it is discovered that the victim died having left Vole most of her estate in a will written only a week before the murder, he is arrested. Then Christine (Marlene Dietrich) comes in and gives a most half-hearted and unconvincing alibi.

The story is full of Agatha Christie’s clever use of twists and surprises and I will not explore it further.  With Una O’Connor as the victim’s suspicious maid.

The cast is like old home week from the 30’s and 40’s and could not possibly be any better.  My favorite part of the film is the banter between Laughton and Lanchester.  This film was my introduction to Tyrone Power way back when.  He is very good and very far from his swashbuckling origins.  Dietrich is also perfect.  I could go on and on about my love of this totally entertaining romp.  Highly recommended.

Witness for the Prosecution was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of:  Best Picture; Best Actor (Laughton); Best Supporting Actress (Lanchester); Best Director; Best Sound, Recording; and Best Film Editing.

Trailer

China Gate
Directed by Samuel Fuller
Written by Samuel Fuller
1957/USA
Globe Enterprises
First viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill of yours, but even at those odds, you will lose and I will win. – Ho Chi Minh to the French, late 1940s[/box]

Sam Fuller keys in on many familiar Viet Nam tropes years before America was in the war.

An international mercenary force is backing the French in the Indochina War.  The USSR is smuggling supplies to the Viet Cong through a network of tunnels near the China Gate. The French call on “Lucky Legs” (Angie Dickinson), a boozy mixed-race entertainer to use her seductive talents and connections to find out the exact location of the tunnel.  She refuses the mission for any amount of money but agrees to do it for a guarantee that her five-year-old son can be sent to the U.S.

She is not happy when she finds out that Sgt. Brock (Gene Barry) will lead the Foreign Legion patrol.  She and Brock were married but he deserted her when their son turned out to look Chinese and not white like his wife.  Now everybody in the movie thinks Brock is a complete louse and tells him so whenever possible.

We soon discover that the couple’s love has not diminished, though it will take the rest of the film for Brock to accept his son.  Lucky Leg woos Viet Cong leader Maj. Cham (Lee Van Cleef), who is also of mixed race origins for info on the tunnels.  The film ends with some heavy combat and explosions.  With Nat King Cole, who also sings the title song a couple of times, as one of the patrol and Marcel Dalio as an aged one-legged French priest.

From the small boy clutching the puppy at the beginning of the film (the dog is the last edible animal in Hanoi) to other larger-than-life situations later, this film could be by none other than Samuel Fuller.  Another trademark is his anti-racist theme and hard-hitting combat dialogue.  I may not have been in the mood for weirdness when I saw it, though, as the film kind of dragged for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNcNd4cCOvs

Trailer