Post by petrolino on May 18, 2018 22:43:36 GMT
'Anatomy Of A Murder' is a legal drama about the trial of US Army Lieutenant Frederick "Manny" Manion (Ben Gazzara) who has committed first-degree murder. Lieutenant Manion doesn't deny the charge but contends his crime was an involuntary action triggered by the brutal rape and assault of his wife Laura (Lee Remick). The couple hire local defense lawyer Paul Biegler (James Stewart) who informs them that Manny's chance of a full acquittal hangs in the balance and that they'll both be required to stand trial if they're to win.
"You can call me Laura."
'Perdido' - Duke Ellington
The courtroom drama 'Anatomy Of A Murder' is based on a book written by Michigan Supreme Court Justice John Voelker under his pen name Robert Traver. It's a Michigan story set within the corridors of justice that allows director Otto Preminger to respectfully chip away at the court's respectable veneer, exploring issues of concealment, the process of prepping witnesses, the challenge posed by jury bias and the fine art of subterfuge. Grey areas within the American legal system and local law are probed in a manner that simultaneously confirms the strengths of both, an aspect Preminger took it upon himself to explain to an audience of students questioning the film's intentions when it was screened at the Russian Academy Of Film.
"Otto Preminger directs this realistic study of an Army lieutenant accused of murdering a bartender who allegedly raped his coquettish wife. An A-list cast is headed by James Stewart as the defense attorney, George C. Scott as prosecutor, Ben Gazzara as the defendant and Lee Remick as his wife. The surprise, though, is the stupendous performance in the role of the judge by real-life lawyer Joseph Welch, who represented the Army in the McCarthy hearings. The plot skips nimbly through a thicket of ethical dilemmas involved in representing a murder defendant. It was inspired by an actual case and adapted from a novel written by a Michigan supreme court judge. The original score is by Duke Ellington, who makes a cameo."
- Richard Brust on 'Anatomy Of A Murder', The American Bar Association Journal
"This philosophy of law, if not American jurisprudence itself, is one of several elements that run like veins of gold through Preminger’s film, which is based on a novel of the same name by Robert Traver. More than just a courtroom drama or police procedural (and one of Preminger’s most successful and recognisable films) Anatomy of a Murder peels back the layers of the American legal system and its complex processes as it examines murder, rape, marriage, dead-end careers and lives and a peculiar outcrop of American geography, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan."
- John Fidler, Senses Of Cinema
"Otto Preminger’s 'Anatomy of a Murder' is more than just a film dealing with the court system: it stands as a realistic and meticulous observation of American life at the time. It was adapted from John D. Voelker’s novel that he had based on a real story in which he was the defence attorney, and Preminger was careful to depict the affair close to how the real case had been conducted. The theme of observation is developed in every aspect of the film. The director aimed to observe and depict the legal system in a scientific and realistic way. In the story, each character observes the other and all are aware that the way they appear will build a specific image of them, and will impact the way they are judged in the trial. Finally, the theme of observation is also developed in the film’s style through Preminger’s observing and neutral camerawork which encourages the audience to examine every detail in the film in order to construct their own opinion and meaning of the case, like a real jury."
- Rachel Elfassy Bitoun, 'Anatomy Of A Murder : The Art Of Observation'
- Richard Brust on 'Anatomy Of A Murder', The American Bar Association Journal
"This philosophy of law, if not American jurisprudence itself, is one of several elements that run like veins of gold through Preminger’s film, which is based on a novel of the same name by Robert Traver. More than just a courtroom drama or police procedural (and one of Preminger’s most successful and recognisable films) Anatomy of a Murder peels back the layers of the American legal system and its complex processes as it examines murder, rape, marriage, dead-end careers and lives and a peculiar outcrop of American geography, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan."
- John Fidler, Senses Of Cinema
"Otto Preminger’s 'Anatomy of a Murder' is more than just a film dealing with the court system: it stands as a realistic and meticulous observation of American life at the time. It was adapted from John D. Voelker’s novel that he had based on a real story in which he was the defence attorney, and Preminger was careful to depict the affair close to how the real case had been conducted. The theme of observation is developed in every aspect of the film. The director aimed to observe and depict the legal system in a scientific and realistic way. In the story, each character observes the other and all are aware that the way they appear will build a specific image of them, and will impact the way they are judged in the trial. Finally, the theme of observation is also developed in the film’s style through Preminger’s observing and neutral camerawork which encourages the audience to examine every detail in the film in order to construct their own opinion and meaning of the case, like a real jury."
- Rachel Elfassy Bitoun, 'Anatomy Of A Murder : The Art Of Observation'
Ben Gazzara, Otto Preminger & James Stewart
'Tightrope' - Ten Wheel Drive
The spectre of religious devotion affects social interactions and hangs over court proceedings throughout 'Anatomy Of A Murder', one of several pictures Preminger directed that was condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency. In truth, religious fervour is not shown in a negative light and it's clear it can turn either way. It's a part of the jury's make-up as the jury reflects the community at large. Faith serves as a conduit during the trial, but it also runs counter to personal inclination during medical testimony. The dialogue in 'Anatomy Of A Murder' is timed, pointed and precise, generating the feel of a real trial; the repeated use of the word "panties" was particularly controversial in 1959 when censorship was far more stringent and the governing body was still reeling from a hammer blow dealt by Elia Kazan's 'Baby Doll' (1956).
'In the documentary 'Super Duper Alice Cooper' (2014), possessed group frontman Alice Cooper (Vincent Furnier, born Detroit, Michigan, February 4, 1948) recalls how he was driven to hire a helicopter to drop hundreds of pairs of panties on to the band's audience during a gig at The Hollywood Bowl (musical attendee Elton John recalls how desperate he was to get his hands on a pair but fans were fighting hard to secure their own). It wasn't lost on Cooper that one of the ultimate Michigan movies had shocked the state in 1959 by breaking down the taboo of saying the word "panties" in public. Though strongly associated with their early creative stints in Arizona and California, the members of Alice Cooper hailed from Michigan, Ohio, Kansas and Oregon.'
~ 'Excerpt from Alice Cooper : The Hollywood Panty Raid'
"When it comes to depicting actual people’s jobs, the truism goes, Hollywood gets everything wrong with stunning regularity. The rare exception is Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder (1959), widely considered among the finest trial films ever made, and maybe more universally loved by law students than by cineastes. The film’s success — seven Oscar nominations and excellent box office — made it the first in a run of films that would constitute the peak accomplishments of Preminger’s nearly fifty-year career, firmly establishing the trailblazing independent producer-director among the artistic and power-brokering elite of the post-studio-system New Hollywood Order (though Preminger, an iconoclast always, made his headquarters in New York). Its verisimilitude can be attributed to Preminger’s working from the story of a real-life trial; his perennial devotion to location shooting, which took him to the scene of the crime; and his wallflower mise-en-scène, which observes action at arm’s length, without imposing interpretation on the viewer.
Preminger also knew his subject. His father, patriarch of a fast-rising Jewish family, had been a public prosecutor in Austria-Hungary. Otto himself had earned a law doctorate in Vienna in the 1920s, after striking a deal with his father that allowed him to simultaneously pursue his desired vocation a few blocks away at the Theater in der Josefstadt, Max Reinhardt’s local base. Preminger’s success directing for the stage led to a summons from Twentieth Century-Fox in 1935. No sooner had he arrived, though, than Preminger, already dangerously self-assured at thirty, unleashed one of his soon-to-be-legendary tantrums on his new boss, Darryl F. Zanuck. Promptly blackballed, Preminger went into exile in New York, the Third Reich’s Anschluss of Austria shortly forestalling his return home. That rising German menace turned out to be Preminger’s return ticket west; his intimidating Teutonic presence got him work playing screen Nazis until, having done his penance for Fox, he finally got back behind a camera."
- Nick Pinkerton, The Criterion Collection
"Their clever exchanges, along with every other cast member’s jurisprudentially themed repartees, are so engrossing that the pacing of 'Anatomy Of A Murder' never slows down, even though the runtime is nearly three hours long. The rapid-fire questions and answers are entertainingly wry, the details are fascinating, and the deeper conversations are masterfully scripted. Constant verbal jousting is darkly humorous, like dialogue from a hardboiled film noir, allowing the plot to regularly thicken intelligently and innovatively.
The field of battle is the courtroom. It’s a taut series of duels between quick-thinkers, each one distinctly deceptive, hilarious, calculating, and creative. Viewers get to see all sides of courthouse drama, including the antics, trickery, badgering, following of procedures, objections, definitions, statements, surprise witnesses, unexpected evidence, and spontaneous outcries – in fact, they’ll see just about the whole trial. It’s incredibly tangled yet still understandable. All of the facts are presented to the audience, though both sides refute every bit of testimony until the actual events come down to one person’s word against another. The beauty of the story is that the truth is insignificant next to how a lawyer can persuade a jury to his advantage."
– Mike Massie, Gone With The Twins
"By 1959, Duke Ellington had appeared in several films with his orchestra, but had never been commissioned to write a film score. So when Otto Preminger’s brother Ingo sent Ellington a script for their latest film project, “Anatomy of a Murder”, Ellington accepted the assignment to compose the music. The Preminger brothers were looking for something different for their film’s soundtrack and Ellington delivered. The recorded score featured his full big band (and a small group culled from the band), and it was a jazz score throughout, even though jazz only played a tangential role in the film’s storyline. Many jazz critics panned the score at the time, but now it is considered to be one of Ellington’s greatest works. The Criterion Collection has issued a new DVD edition of “Anatomy” with an audio option that makes the music stand out."
- Thomas Cunniffe, Jazz History Online
Preminger also knew his subject. His father, patriarch of a fast-rising Jewish family, had been a public prosecutor in Austria-Hungary. Otto himself had earned a law doctorate in Vienna in the 1920s, after striking a deal with his father that allowed him to simultaneously pursue his desired vocation a few blocks away at the Theater in der Josefstadt, Max Reinhardt’s local base. Preminger’s success directing for the stage led to a summons from Twentieth Century-Fox in 1935. No sooner had he arrived, though, than Preminger, already dangerously self-assured at thirty, unleashed one of his soon-to-be-legendary tantrums on his new boss, Darryl F. Zanuck. Promptly blackballed, Preminger went into exile in New York, the Third Reich’s Anschluss of Austria shortly forestalling his return home. That rising German menace turned out to be Preminger’s return ticket west; his intimidating Teutonic presence got him work playing screen Nazis until, having done his penance for Fox, he finally got back behind a camera."
- Nick Pinkerton, The Criterion Collection
"Their clever exchanges, along with every other cast member’s jurisprudentially themed repartees, are so engrossing that the pacing of 'Anatomy Of A Murder' never slows down, even though the runtime is nearly three hours long. The rapid-fire questions and answers are entertainingly wry, the details are fascinating, and the deeper conversations are masterfully scripted. Constant verbal jousting is darkly humorous, like dialogue from a hardboiled film noir, allowing the plot to regularly thicken intelligently and innovatively.
The field of battle is the courtroom. It’s a taut series of duels between quick-thinkers, each one distinctly deceptive, hilarious, calculating, and creative. Viewers get to see all sides of courthouse drama, including the antics, trickery, badgering, following of procedures, objections, definitions, statements, surprise witnesses, unexpected evidence, and spontaneous outcries – in fact, they’ll see just about the whole trial. It’s incredibly tangled yet still understandable. All of the facts are presented to the audience, though both sides refute every bit of testimony until the actual events come down to one person’s word against another. The beauty of the story is that the truth is insignificant next to how a lawyer can persuade a jury to his advantage."
– Mike Massie, Gone With The Twins
"By 1959, Duke Ellington had appeared in several films with his orchestra, but had never been commissioned to write a film score. So when Otto Preminger’s brother Ingo sent Ellington a script for their latest film project, “Anatomy of a Murder”, Ellington accepted the assignment to compose the music. The Preminger brothers were looking for something different for their film’s soundtrack and Ellington delivered. The recorded score featured his full big band (and a small group culled from the band), and it was a jazz score throughout, even though jazz only played a tangential role in the film’s storyline. Many jazz critics panned the score at the time, but now it is considered to be one of Ellington’s greatest works. The Criterion Collection has issued a new DVD edition of “Anatomy” with an audio option that makes the music stand out."
- Thomas Cunniffe, Jazz History Online
Arthur O'Connell & James Stewart
'Down So Low' - Mother Earth
I think the loose, lifelike structure of 'Anatomy Of A Murder' reflects its unusual sound design. Preminger's free-flowing jazz improvisations are built from an embryonic fusion of elemental sound, internal jazz monologues, fly-on-the-wall observations, adapted docudrama techniques, legal test case theorising and live theatre, all of which is filtered through the lens of an avid crime cinema deconstruction from one of the genre's specialists. Music for the movie is composed by jazz man Duke Ellington who makes an appearance at the piano alongside leading man James Stewart.
Preminger was a technical filmmaker who liked to adapt his style to suit the material he was servicing, and in this regard, he was similar to Sidney Lumet who directed several influential legal dramas. For 'Anatomy Of A Murder', experienced camera operator Sam Leavitt is required to tap right into the heart of the trial process. The roving camera uses short but fluid movements to trace lines and draw elements together. On occasion, Preminger tosses a curveball, in one moment using a jump cut, in another harnessing a dramatic focus pull, but the camera is mostly employed as a quiet observer and this allows the case to take centre stage.
"To the critics of Cahiers du cinéma, Otto Preminger was almost a mystical figure. In 1954, 'Angel Face' and 'The Moon Is Blue' moved Jacques Rivette to ask “What is mise en scène?” and to give this definition, which sums up what attracted the more intellectual French cineastes to American cinema: “the creation of a precise complex of sets and characters, a network of relationships, an architecture of connections, an animated complex that seems suspended in space.”
Preminger represents the height of the kind of cinema Rivette defines here (which might be called “classical”): one in which bodies, movements, spaces, gestures, and dialogue are contained within an ever-changing unity, the transcendental comprehension of which is both the task of the work and an elusive promise held out by the medium. Crucial to this conception of cinema is the camera’s power to link characters and place. In Preminger’s films (as in Nicholas Ray’s), shots of the exteriors of buildings, of people entering rooms, etc., are not merely “establishing” shots, preludes whose content is equivalent to their function; rather, such shots are central to a main purpose of the films – to find a visual correlative for the freedom of people to determine their own destinies. Already clear in 'Laura', 'Fallen Ange'l, and 'Daisy Kenyon', this drive becomes dominant in 'Exodus' and 'Advise and Consent', which follow the coming-together and splitting-apart of large casts of characters through a dazzling range of tonalities and settings."
- Chris Fujiwara, Senses Of Cinema
"It was in Cahiers du Cinéma's pages that François Truffaut published his famous broadside against the old guard, A Certain Tendency in French Cinema; that the idea of auteurism ("la politique des auteurs") was first articulated; that future film-makers Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette and Eric Rohmer polemicised and proselytised on behalf of the directors they revered; that the renowned critic André Bazin (1918-1958) published many of his articles about mise-en-scène and depth of focus. "One had immense admiration for Bazin, who was an intellectual powerhouse, and for the Cahiers critics," remembers former Sight and Sound editor Penelope Houston. "There was a general feeling in England that we weren't living up to them. We probably weren't."
It is hard now to appreciate the sheer passion for cinema that the magazine engendered. Every night, the Cahiers critics and their acolytes would attend screenings at Henri Langlois's Cinémathèque. "Films would be flung into the programme without any thought, but that was the theory - that all films deserved to be seen and your judgments should not be shaped for you in advance by hierarchies imposed on the programme," recalls British writer Gilbert Adair, a Cahiers subscriber since he was 16. Cahiers reviewers only wrote about films they admired, and when they wrote, they wrote at length: to devote 25 pages to, say, the work of Otto Preminger was considered commonplace."
- Geoffrey Macnab, The Guardian
"Anatomy of a Murder : Preminger’s camera work and stylistic techniques place the audience at the heart of the trial. The observing camera follows the characters and scrutinises the places like a spy which allows us to see everything in detail. John Orr states that Preminger’s panning and travelling shots ‘allow the spectator to enter into the picture, an opening up of cinematic space’. By not forcing the eye of the viewer and keeping his camerawork reserved of any judgement, he breaks the space between screen and audience and encourages us to participate in the investigation of the murder. His style incites us to observe meticulously the scenes and the protagonists’ behaviours in order to link clues together, make assumptions and construct our opinion of the case.
As Susan White writes, Preminger ‘presupposes an intelligence active enough to allow the spectator to make connections, comparisons and judgements. Preminger presents the evidence but he leaves the spectator to draw his own conclusions’. By adopting a neutral camera style and allowing the witnesses to recite their versions without judging them, Preminger creates the perfect conditions for viewers to observe how a trial functions and make their own moral judgement about the way the characters behave and the meaning of their actions.
In the hands of the impartial director, the camera is like a window into the film. Windows are a recurrent motif that highlights the theme of observing and being observed. When Biegler comes home from his fishing trip at the beginning of the film, his friend Paul McCarthy (Arthur O’Connell) pays him a visit and checks if Biegler is here by looking at the window. The camera stands behind McCarthy and directly looks through the window where we can see Biegler on the telephone in the background. The camera becomes a sort of character watching from behind and instantly positions the viewer as a direct observer of the scene, as if we were there.
Another example of this happens when Biegler is about to interrogate Manion for the first time. He opens the door to the Sherriff’s office and lets Manion in before closing the glass door. As he closes the door, the camera, which stood completely still before, moves forward and tracks Biegler through the window. Preminger could have simply cut to the inside of the room but through this technique, he makes the camera look alive and imitates the steps of someone watching by the door. Consequently, it feels like we are spying on them – Preminger invites us to observe the scene and prevents us from missing clues that could impact our understanding. Hence the film’s camerawork highlights the importance of observing every detail to create meaning. Long takes also encourage the audience to be thorough observers as it gives time and space for spectators to look at the scenes in detail."
- Rachel Elfassy Bitoun, 'Anatomy Of A Murder : The Art Of Observation'
Preminger represents the height of the kind of cinema Rivette defines here (which might be called “classical”): one in which bodies, movements, spaces, gestures, and dialogue are contained within an ever-changing unity, the transcendental comprehension of which is both the task of the work and an elusive promise held out by the medium. Crucial to this conception of cinema is the camera’s power to link characters and place. In Preminger’s films (as in Nicholas Ray’s), shots of the exteriors of buildings, of people entering rooms, etc., are not merely “establishing” shots, preludes whose content is equivalent to their function; rather, such shots are central to a main purpose of the films – to find a visual correlative for the freedom of people to determine their own destinies. Already clear in 'Laura', 'Fallen Ange'l, and 'Daisy Kenyon', this drive becomes dominant in 'Exodus' and 'Advise and Consent', which follow the coming-together and splitting-apart of large casts of characters through a dazzling range of tonalities and settings."
- Chris Fujiwara, Senses Of Cinema
"It was in Cahiers du Cinéma's pages that François Truffaut published his famous broadside against the old guard, A Certain Tendency in French Cinema; that the idea of auteurism ("la politique des auteurs") was first articulated; that future film-makers Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette and Eric Rohmer polemicised and proselytised on behalf of the directors they revered; that the renowned critic André Bazin (1918-1958) published many of his articles about mise-en-scène and depth of focus. "One had immense admiration for Bazin, who was an intellectual powerhouse, and for the Cahiers critics," remembers former Sight and Sound editor Penelope Houston. "There was a general feeling in England that we weren't living up to them. We probably weren't."
It is hard now to appreciate the sheer passion for cinema that the magazine engendered. Every night, the Cahiers critics and their acolytes would attend screenings at Henri Langlois's Cinémathèque. "Films would be flung into the programme without any thought, but that was the theory - that all films deserved to be seen and your judgments should not be shaped for you in advance by hierarchies imposed on the programme," recalls British writer Gilbert Adair, a Cahiers subscriber since he was 16. Cahiers reviewers only wrote about films they admired, and when they wrote, they wrote at length: to devote 25 pages to, say, the work of Otto Preminger was considered commonplace."
- Geoffrey Macnab, The Guardian
"Anatomy of a Murder : Preminger’s camera work and stylistic techniques place the audience at the heart of the trial. The observing camera follows the characters and scrutinises the places like a spy which allows us to see everything in detail. John Orr states that Preminger’s panning and travelling shots ‘allow the spectator to enter into the picture, an opening up of cinematic space’. By not forcing the eye of the viewer and keeping his camerawork reserved of any judgement, he breaks the space between screen and audience and encourages us to participate in the investigation of the murder. His style incites us to observe meticulously the scenes and the protagonists’ behaviours in order to link clues together, make assumptions and construct our opinion of the case.
As Susan White writes, Preminger ‘presupposes an intelligence active enough to allow the spectator to make connections, comparisons and judgements. Preminger presents the evidence but he leaves the spectator to draw his own conclusions’. By adopting a neutral camera style and allowing the witnesses to recite their versions without judging them, Preminger creates the perfect conditions for viewers to observe how a trial functions and make their own moral judgement about the way the characters behave and the meaning of their actions.
In the hands of the impartial director, the camera is like a window into the film. Windows are a recurrent motif that highlights the theme of observing and being observed. When Biegler comes home from his fishing trip at the beginning of the film, his friend Paul McCarthy (Arthur O’Connell) pays him a visit and checks if Biegler is here by looking at the window. The camera stands behind McCarthy and directly looks through the window where we can see Biegler on the telephone in the background. The camera becomes a sort of character watching from behind and instantly positions the viewer as a direct observer of the scene, as if we were there.
Another example of this happens when Biegler is about to interrogate Manion for the first time. He opens the door to the Sherriff’s office and lets Manion in before closing the glass door. As he closes the door, the camera, which stood completely still before, moves forward and tracks Biegler through the window. Preminger could have simply cut to the inside of the room but through this technique, he makes the camera look alive and imitates the steps of someone watching by the door. Consequently, it feels like we are spying on them – Preminger invites us to observe the scene and prevents us from missing clues that could impact our understanding. Hence the film’s camerawork highlights the importance of observing every detail to create meaning. Long takes also encourage the audience to be thorough observers as it gives time and space for spectators to look at the scenes in detail."
- Rachel Elfassy Bitoun, 'Anatomy Of A Murder : The Art Of Observation'
James Stewart & Duke Ellington
'See My People Come Together' - Zephyr
The case being tried in 'Anatomy Of A Murder' confronts difficult issues surrounding rape, domestic violence, sexual assault and nymphomania. The film's influence is profound. As an example, two films scripted by playwright Tom Topor seem to draw a degree of inspiration from 'Anatomy Of A Murder'; the character of Sarah Tobias (Jodie Foster) in Jonathan Kaplan's 'The Accused' (1988) appears in flashbacks in a bar where she's gone for a drink and to play some pinball, a set-piece I believe is directly alluding to Lee Remick's groundbreaking performance as Laura Manion in 'Anatomy Of A Murder, and the film's influence can also be detected in Martin Ritt's 'Nuts' (1987). Other strong legal thrillers I think exhibit this film's influence include Norman Jewison's '... And Justice For All' (1979), Gregory Hoblit's 'Primal Fear' (1996) and David Giancola's 'Moving Targets' (1999).
"In Boomerang! corrupt politicians are purely out for there own gains or protection. The townspeople want justice i.e. revenge for the death of their beloved minister even if the wrong man is convicted. The police department is squeezed in the middle being pressured by both the politicians and the public for “justice.” For Elia Kazan, this was the first time he touched on the subject of corruption, a topic he would revisit in more detail in later films. Here, he seems to be somewhat restrained maybe still believing that most political officials were honest and decent folks with no personal agendas. Kazan was still in the early stages of his film career and “Boomerang!” was pretty much a job for hire. What Boomerang! did do for Kazan was introduce him to the benefits and realism of shooting on location, freeing him of the studio bound restrictions of his first two films. Location shooting would be something he would pursue in his best works, films like “On the Waterfront”, “Panic in the Streets” “Viva Zapata”, “Wild River” and others. Kazan does credit Boomerang!” for setting the tone of his development and style as a filmmaker. In Jeff Young’s interview book “The Master Director Discusses His Films”, Kazan states, In “Boomerang!” I think, is the basis for “Panic in the Streets” and in “Panic in the Streets” is the basis for “On the Waterfront.” If you see these three films together, you’ll see the development.”
- John Greco, Twenty Four Frames
“12 Angry Men is such a landmark film for its depiction of jury deliberation, its great ensemble cast, its use of the resources of film to depict the claustrophobia of the jury room, etc. On a personal note, it’s probably the film that began my fascination with law and film as I still vividly remember watching it from the backseat of my parents’ car at a drive-in long after I probably should have been asleep.”
- Diane Waldman, The American Bar Association Journal
- Diane Waldman, The American Bar Association Journal
"Otto Preminger’s “Anatomy of a Murder,” from 1959, is still the best courtroom drama ever made in this country, and, in its occasional forays out of the court, among the finest evocations of place — an Upper Peninsula Michigan resort area in the off-season, leafless, underpopulated, alcoholic, and forlorn."
- David Denby, The New Yorker
James Stewart & Lee Remick
'Kissing My Love' - Cold Blood
In 2012, 'Anatomy Of A Murder' was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
