Anatomy of a Murder. (12A.)
Directed by Otto Preminger. 1957
Starring James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell, Eve Arden, Kathryn Grant, George C. Scott and Joseph N. Welch. Black and white. Out now on Blu-ray as part of the Criterion Collection. 160 mins.
This celebrated courtroom drama suffers from being rather eclipsed by its poster and titles. The Saul Bass design - paper cutouts of dismembered limbs assembled in the shape of a body and with the film's title imposed over the two legs and the lower part of the stomach - is as striking today as it was then. It looks so good, you could be tempted to buy this Criterion Collection release just for the box.
It does though do the movie the disservice of setting the bar a little higher than it can reach. Preminger's film about the trial of a soldier (Gazzara) who killed the man who raped his wife (Remick) was very bold in the late fifties with its Duke Ellington soundtrack and talk of penetration and spermatogenesis; now it looks like just another procedural, though one where the supposed docudrama realism jars with the folksy dramatics.
Anatomy is basically a star vehicle for James Stewart. At the start, we are introduced to him as the semi-washed up former DA, more interested in fishing than working, with an exasperated secretary (Arden) that he can't pay and hanging out with drunk ex-lawyer (O'Connell) who he will sober up to help him fight the big murder case. It is taken from a novel based, very closely apparently, on an actual case and written by the real-life version of Stewart's lawyer, but it plays like pure Hollywood.
Bass's poster represents the anatomy of murder victim Barney Quill, but the film is far more focused on the anatomy of Lee Remick. The prosecution tries to slut-shame her but the movie worships her, almost slobbers over her. She wears tight tops and has a dog called Muff and that would seem to be all you need to know about her but the movie insists on making almost every character pass an, entirely redundant, comment about how hot she is. Prosecutor C. Scott even praises the colour of her hair: so luxuriantly red that even being in black and white won't dim its fire.
Special Features
New digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
Directed by Otto Preminger. 1957
Starring James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell, Eve Arden, Kathryn Grant, George C. Scott and Joseph N. Welch. Black and white. Out now on Blu-ray as part of the Criterion Collection. 160 mins.
This celebrated courtroom drama suffers from being rather eclipsed by its poster and titles. The Saul Bass design - paper cutouts of dismembered limbs assembled in the shape of a body and with the film's title imposed over the two legs and the lower part of the stomach - is as striking today as it was then. It looks so good, you could be tempted to buy this Criterion Collection release just for the box.
It does though do the movie the disservice of setting the bar a little higher than it can reach. Preminger's film about the trial of a soldier (Gazzara) who killed the man who raped his wife (Remick) was very bold in the late fifties with its Duke Ellington soundtrack and talk of penetration and spermatogenesis; now it looks like just another procedural, though one where the supposed docudrama realism jars with the folksy dramatics.
Anatomy is basically a star vehicle for James Stewart. At the start, we are introduced to him as the semi-washed up former DA, more interested in fishing than working, with an exasperated secretary (Arden) that he can't pay and hanging out with drunk ex-lawyer (O'Connell) who he will sober up to help him fight the big murder case. It is taken from a novel based, very closely apparently, on an actual case and written by the real-life version of Stewart's lawyer, but it plays like pure Hollywood.
Bass's poster represents the anatomy of murder victim Barney Quill, but the film is far more focused on the anatomy of Lee Remick. The prosecution tries to slut-shame her but the movie worships her, almost slobbers over her. She wears tight tops and has a dog called Muff and that would seem to be all you need to know about her but the movie insists on making almost every character pass an, entirely redundant, comment about how hot she is. Prosecutor C. Scott even praises the colour of her hair: so luxuriantly red that even being in black and white won't dim its fire.
Special Features
New digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- New alternate 5.1 soundtrack, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray edition
- New interview with Otto Preminger biographer Foster Hirsch
- Critic Gary Giddins explores Duke Ellington’s score in a new interview
- A look at the relationship between graphic designer Saul Bass and Preminger with Bass biographer Pat Kirkham
- Newsreel footage from the set
- Excerpts from a 1967 episode of Firing Line, featuring Preminger in discussion with William F. Buckley Jr.
- Excerpts from the work in progress Anatomy of “Anatomy”
- Behind-the-scenes photographs by Life magazine’s Gjon Mili
- Trailer, featuring on-set footage
- PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by critic Nick Pinkerton and a 1959 Life magazine article on real-life lawyer Joseph N. Welch, who plays Judge Weaver in the film
Cover based on a theatrical poster by Saul Bass
