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William C. Altreuter
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Friday, April 05, 2013

We did Anatomy of a Murder in Lawyers in Movies the other night. It's funny how it goes: Sometimes the students bounce right off it, and sometimes they totally get it. This class gets it, which makes me happy: there is a great deal to like about it. I am tempted to move it up in the rotation, to show it earlier in the semester, but I probably won't; the problem the students seem to have-- other than the fact that it is black and white-- is that it takes a little while for the story to reach a full boil. That's not a problem with the movie-- Preminger builds it up beautifully. It is a problem with the way movies are presently constructed, which has conditioned viewers to expect episodes of dynamic action from the moment the film starts. Character and plot development seem mostly to take place in between action or comic episodes, and this makes AoaM hard to follow for people who aren't used to a different tempo. I love the courtroom scenes in it: Jimmy Stewart's Paul Biegler does a fine job of home-boying George C. Scott's Claude Dancer, and Scott is magnificent. In the scene pictured Dancer is cross-examining the smoking hot Lee Remick with the kind of snarling intensity that we all think our cross is like and I could watch it again and again.

// posted by Bill @ 8:01 AM
| Comments:
It happens we, your parents are the ones who suggested this movie for your course. We had just seen it again at the time you asked for suggestions.

Everyone in it gave spot on performances and it was a good little mystery story, too.
# posted by Blogger TCA : 1:43 PM
 
The real find was Counsellor at Law, which you could have suggested, but didn't. AoaM isn't really a mystery, though: we know that Lt. Mannion killed Floyd Thursby-- and Capt. Jacoby.
# posted by Blogger Bill : 4:07 PM
 

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