Judgment at Nuremberg

Format: DVD from NetFlix on laptop.

There are a few films out there that are a wet dream from a casting perspective. Judgment at Nuremberg is just such a film. Seriously, Stanely Kramer must have conspired with the devil to assemble these people in one place. Take a deep breath: Spencer Tracy, Maximilian Schell, Montgomery Clift, Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, Richard Widmark, and Burt Lancaster, four of whom nabbed Oscar nominations for this film. For fun, you also get early big screen appearances of Werner Klemperer and William Shatner. Holy shit, but that’s a cast that would make any director of the day drool.

The film takes place in the years following World War II, when various members of the Third Reich were put on trial for war crimes. In the film’s present day, the big trials are over and the surviving members of the Nazi brain trust and military have been dealt with. What remains are the civil servants, officials, and in the case of this film, judges who sentenced people cruelly, unfairly, or with malicious intent. American judge Dan Haywood (Spencer Tracy) has been sent to Germany to preside over the case of four judges. His appointed assistant, Captain Harrison Byers (William Shatner) gets him settled in and we jump right into the case.