Witness for the Prosecution

Witness for the Prosecution (1957) by Billy Wilder

I admit that I am new to this movie.  It’s been on my list to see for many years.  A long time ago, when TBS was running it’s My Favorite Movies – Summer Edition, they ran this movie with Judge Joseph Wapner as the host and commentator.  Brilliant.

This is your basic Agatha Christie who-done-it.  I say that with all due respect and honor for Dame Agatha.  The story seems straight-forward on the surface, and maybe in some respects it is.  The story itself, though, is engaging and almost immediately demands your attention as a reader/viewer.

We spend the greater part of the movie wondering if Leonard is innocent or guilty.  Frau Dietrich only adds to the confusion.  As I’m watching and Leonard tells about how he met Christine, I can only think of Blazing Saddles.

Christine totally puts the moves on Leonard.  He’s such a doofus.  The fact that the ceiling falls in on him is only foreshadowing of the trouble he’s gotten himself in to.

Is it better to be convicted of perjury instead of being left behind in a destroyed East Germany?