Echo Beach

          "Anatomy of a Murder", Directed by Otto Preminger [1959], is a courtroom drama that takes place in Northern Michigan in the 50's. It's a black and white film that stars Jimmy Stewart, Arthur O'Connell, Lee Remick, and George C. Scott. Stewart and Scott were both nominated for Oscars with this one.
          The story is murder trial. [For you squeamish types, don't worry. All the violence takes place off stage.] An army lieutenant has been accused of murdering a tavern owner, whom he claims raped and beat his wife. The wife supports her husband's story even though there is no evidence of rape. It doesn't help that the wife is a well-known tease. The term for the era was "tramp". Jimmy Stewart's character defends the husband and claims that both the husband and wife are telling the truth and that the husband was temporarily insane at the time of the murder.
          I was drawn into this movie right away. This was a bit of a departure for Stewart, who is known for his simple, soft-spoken characters. Here he's still a country lawyer, but he's a sharp one, brimming with wit and intelligence. George C. Scott, who plays a top prosecutor from New York and only appears in the last half of the file, is just as witty and challenging, a very worthy opponent for Stewart. This was one of Scott's first roles, and demonstrated exactly where he was heading in the film business.
          The script is well written, based on the book of the same name by John D. Voelker. Voelker was a Michigan Supreme court justice, so he wrote what he knew. There are lines in this movie that are obviously well thought out. The characters show depth with a simple turn of a phrase. I often found myself amazed at how a character reacted to a statement or situation. The detail in the direction by Mr. Preminger is so clean and precise that it was a pleasure just to see what would come next, unusual for a "no action" picture.
          Preminger was known for controversial films. His "The Moon is Blue" was banned in Boston, as some of you MASH fans know, for containing such lines as "Are you trying to seduce me?" and words like "virgin". Imagine how people reacted to "Anatomy" which contains words like "Intercourse", "Contraceptive"," and "Spermatogenesis". True, tese words are tame to this day and age, but back then? Horrors! The Chicago police tried to block the screening of "Anatomy" unless these words were deleted. It took a federal judge to overrule the police. There hadn't been so much controversy caused by film language since Clark Gable uttered, "damn" in "Gone With the Wind".

          My favorite character of the film was the judge. Preminger cast a real judge in the role, Joseph N. Welch. Welch almost stole the show each time he spoke. At one point in the film, just after a witness wisecracks, the judge speaks up "Now, now, let's not have any wise cracking. Leave that to the attorneys." He had a pocket watch that, when the two lawyers would start to bicker, he would pull out glance at as if to say, "how long should I let them go?" Then he would wind it and put it away.
          I was fastinated by this actor/judge. I had been so used to stuffy, irritated, and interfering judges, displaying indifference to the dregs of society paraded before him. Finding one who actually "presided" over his courtroom was a breath of fresh air. I did some researched to find out if he had been in any other films. As near as I could find, this was the only film he did. But what I did find out about Joseph D. Welch gave me even better appreciation for the man.
          Joseph D. Welch was involved in the televised Army/McCarthy hearings. He was an attorney for the Army at the time. Often during the hearings he would pull out his pocket watch to see if the "drama of the day" would be over in time for him to catch the last train back to Boston. Most importantly, I found the Welch was responsible for a famous quote that was the beginning of the end for McCarthy;

          "Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you no sense of decency?'"