Rhapsodies

The main point of my selection was courtroom drama, but as I viewed them I found them to be wonderfully similar to each other. Both featured lawyers stuck in their personal limb who are given a case provides them with a chance to start again, and most notably featuring two of Hollywood’s best loved actors.

The first film on the List, Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder features Jimmy Stewart as Paul Beilger a Michigan based attorney who has been in semi retirement for the last two years spending most of his time fishing and listening to Jazz Albums.

He is recruited to defend an abusive Army lieutenant Frederick “Manny” Manion (Ben Gazzar) awho had murdered his wife’s rapist. Manson has admitted he’s done it but believes he’s justified. Beilger takes the case beginning an uphill battle. To make matters worse he’s up against ace assistant attorney general, Claude Dancer, played brilliantly by George C Scott in his second film role.

I loved every minute of this film. I always like the films where Stewart doesn’t play Stewart. In this case he plays almost a parody of himself. At first glance Beilger comes off as another one of Stewart’s golly gee american pie types but at the same time he’s not at all like that. He has an ammoral streak doing whatever it takes to win a case and is a huge Jazz fan (nothing wrong with that of course but still suspect in the fifties and makes for useful shorthand)

There isn’t a single bad performance in this film along with Stewart, George C Scott is brilliant. The camerawork is amazing and following up with Beilger’s love of Jazz, we have a terrific soundtrack by Duke Ellington (as well as a fun little cameo.)

The next film on my list was Sidney Lumet’s The Verdict with a script by David Mamet. Paul Newman play’s Frank Galven a washed up and alcoholic attorney who hasn’t won case in four years and now is left trolling funerals.

A friend gives him what should be an easy case. A malpractice suit in a hospital run by the Boston Archdiocese where a lucrative settlement is in the bag. But something about the case leads him to actually care about it and he chooses to fight for the clients (whether the clients want him to do it at all.)

However he is completely outclassed against the Archdioceses law team led by Ed Concannon played brilliantly by James Mason who is able to preasure just about any witness Galven needs (as well as the Judge) 

This is a great performance from Newman. He makes this whole story as a study of redemption starting in a drunken pit, gradually regaining his passion.