Witness for the Prosecution (1957 film): Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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| country = United States

| language = English

| budget = $2 million<ref>{{cite magazine| magazine=Variety| url=https://archive.org/details/variety208-1957-11/page/n269/mode/1up/search/%22edward+small%22?q=%22edward+small%22|page=24| title=Hollywood Vanity| date=27 November 1957}}</ref>

| gross = $9 million

}}

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==Production==

Producers Arthur Hornblow and Edward Small bought the rights to the play for $450,000. The play was adjusted to emphasize the character of the defense barrister.<ref name="LATimes">{{cite news| title=A Town Called Hollywood: Outcome of Christie Play Kept Dark Secret for Film| last=Scheuer| first=Philip K.|work newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]| date=July 14, 1957| page=E2}}</ref> Billy Wilder was signed to direct in April 1956.<ref name="Pryor">{{cite news |title=New Movie Deal for Billy Wilder: Signed to Direct 'Witness for the Prosecution' After Completing 2 Other Films R.K.O. Buys Rose TV Play |first=Thomas M. |last=Pryor |worknewspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=April 27, 1956 |page=22 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1956/04/27/archives/new-movie-deal-for-billy-wilder-signed-to-direct-witness-for-the.html}}</ref> According to Wilder, when the producers approached Marlene Dietrich about the part, she accepted on the condition that Wilder direct. Wilder said that Dietrich liked "to play a murderess" but was "a little bit embarrassed when playing the love scenes."<ref>{{cite book| last1=Crowe| first1=Cameron|title=Conversations with Billy Wilder|date year=1999| publisher=Borzoi Books| location=New York| isbn=9780375406607978-0-3754-0660-7| page=171| edition=First}}</ref>

[[Vivien Leigh]] was considered for the role of Christine Vole.<ref>{{cite news |last=Parsons |first=Louella |date=April 30, 1956 |title=Wilder to Do Broadway, London Hit |page=32 |work=[[The Washington Post and Times-Herald]]}}</ref> Laughton based his performance on Florance Guedella, his own lawyer, an Englishman who was known for twirling his monocle while cross-examining witnesses.<ref name="LATimes" />

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At the end of the film, as the credits roll, a voiceover announces:

{{blockquote |The management of this theater suggests that, for the greater entertainment of your friends who have not yet seen the picture, you will not divulge to anyone the secret of the ending of ''Witness for the Prosecution''.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/52448 |title=''Witness for the Prosecution'' (1957) |workwebsite=[[AFI Catalog of Feature Films]] |access-date=February 14, 2024}}</ref>}}

This was in keeping with the advertising campaign for the film. One of the posters said: "You'll talk about it! - but please don't tell the ending!"<ref>{{harvnb|Zigelstein|2004}}. "the end credits earnestly entreat the audience not to divulge [the surprise ending] upon leaving the theater."</ref>

The effort to keep the ending a secret extended to the cast. Billy Wilder did not allow the actors to view the final ten pages of the script until it was time to shoot those scenes. The secrecy reportedly cost Marlene Dietrich an Academy Award, as [[United Artists]] did not want to call attention to the fact that Dietrich was practically unrecognizable as the Cockney woman who hands over the incriminating letters to the defense.<ref>{{cite AV media |author-link=Robert Osborne |last=Osborne |first=Robert |title=Comments on [[Turner Classic Movies|TCM]] broadcast |date=October 29, 2008|publisher=[[Turner Classic Movies]]}}</ref>

==Reception==

In a contemporary review for ''[[The New York Times]]'', critic [[Bosley Crowther]] wrote: "... [T]here's never a dull or worthless moment. It's all parry and punch from the word 'Go!', which is plainly announced when the accused man is brought to Mr. Laughton at the beginning of the film. And the air in the courtroom fairly crackles with emotional electricity, until that staggering surprise in the last reel. Then the whole drama explodes. It's the staging of the scenes that is important in this rapidly moving film ... It's the balancing of well-marked characters, the shifts of mood, the changes of pace and the interesting bursts of histrionics that the various actors display."<ref name="Pryor" />

Agatha Christie "herself considered it the finest film derived from one of her stories."{{sfn|Zigelstein|2004}}<ref>{{cite news| title='Witness for Prosecution' Dynamic Courtroom Film|last=Schallert| first=Edwin|work newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]| date=December 18, 1957| page=B14}}</ref> It currently holds [[list of films with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes|a 100% approval rating]] on [[Rotten Tomatoes]], based on 40 reviews with an average rating of 8.7/10.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/witness_for_the_prosecution|title=Witness for the Prosecution (1957)|work website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]]|publisher=[[Fandango Media]]|access-date=February 13, 2024}}</ref> In ''[[TV Guide]]''{{'}}s review of the film, it received four and a half stars out of five, the writer saying that "''Witness for the Prosecution'' is a witty, terse adaptation of the [[Agatha Christie]] hit play brought to the screen with ingenuity and vitality by [[Billy Wilder]]."<ref>{{Citecite web |url= https://www.tvguide.com/movies/witness-for-the-prosecution/review/2030101640/ |title=Witness for the Prosecution |workwebsite=[[TV Guide]] |publisher=[[CBS Interactive]]|access-date=February 14, 2024}}</ref>

The [[American Film Institute]] included the film in [[AFI's 10 Top 10]] at #6 in the courtroom-drama category.

===Box Office===

The film reached [[List of 1958 box office number-one films in the United States|number one at the American box office]] for two consecutive weeks in February and March 1958.<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |title=National Boxoffice Survey |date=March 12, 1958 |page=3 |url=https://archive.org/details/variety210-1958-03/page/n81/mode/2up |access-date=September 26, 2021 |via=[[Archive.org]]}}</ref>

It earned $3.75 million in its first year.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://archive.org/details/variety213-1959-01/page/n46/mode/1up?q=%22top+grossers%22 |magazine=Variety |title=Top Grossers of 1958 |date=7 January 1959 |page=48}} Please note figures are for US and Canada only and are domestic rentals accruing to distributors as opposed to theatre gross</ref>

===Accolades===

{| class="wikitable"

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! Result

|-

| rowspan="6"| [[30th Academy Awards|Academy Awards]]<ref name="Oscars1958">{{Citecite web |url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1958 |title=The 30th Academy Awards {{!}} 1958 |access-date=August 21, 2011|work=[[Academy Awards|Oscars.org]]|publisherwebsite=[[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]]}}</ref>

| [[Academy Award for Best Picture|Best Picture]]

| [[Arthur Hornblow Jr.]]

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==Bibliography==

*{{cite book |last=Aldridge |first=Mark |chapter=Chapter 5: Christie Films Make an Impact: Spoilers: And Then There Were None; 'Philomel Cottage'; Love from a Stranger; Witness for the Prosecution |title=Agatha Christie on Screen |year=2016 |pages=79-94 |isbn=978-13496769581-3496-7695-8}}

*{{cite book |last1=Durgnat |first1=Raymond |author1-link=Raymond Durgnat |last2=Simmon |first2=Scott |year=1988 |title=King Vidor, American |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=978-0-5205200-057985798-82}}

* {{cite journal |last=Hantke |first=Steffen |title=Wïlder's Dietrich: 'Witness for the Prosecution' in the Context of the Cold War |journal=German Studies Review |year=2011 |pages=247-260 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41303729}}

*{{cite book |last=Hopkins |first=Charles |year=2004 |title=A Foreign Affair, 1948 |publisher=UCLA Film and Television Archive: 12th Festival of Preservation, July 22-August 21}}

*{{cite book|publisher=Gale Learning |title=A Study Guide for Agatha Christie's 'Witness for the Prosecution' |year=2016 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xwBdDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Witness+for+the+Prosecution%22+film&pg=PT3}}