Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Actor 1957

The Contenders:

Alec Guinness: The Bridge on the River Kwai (winner)
Anthony Franciosa: A Hatful of Rain
Marlon Brando: Sayonara
Anthony Quinn: Wild is the Wind
Charles Laughton: Witness for the Prosecution

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Director 1957

The Contenders:

Sidney Lumet: 12 Angry Men
David Lean: The Bridge on the River Kwai (winner)
Mark Robson: Peyton Place
Joshua Logan: Sayonara
Billy Wilder: Witness for the Prosecution

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Picture 1957

The Contenders:

12 Angry Men
The Bridge on the River Kwai (winner)
Peyton Place
Sayonara
Witness for the Prosecution

Watching Oscar: Witness for the Prosecution

Film: Witness for the Prosecution
Format: DVD from Northern Illinois University Founders Memorial Library on kick-ass portable DVD player.

I have been having a serious problem lately with spambots. For whatever reason, the original version of this review, posted September 20, has attracted 20-30 spam posts per day. I'm deleting the original post and reposting here in an attempt to fix this issue. On the plus side, Blogger's spam filters are evidently excellent, because not a single spam comment has made it through. Fingers crossed, here we go again.

Charles Laughton evidently once said of himself that he had a face that could stop a sundial. Be that as it may, the man could bring it on the big screen. When he bit down into a role, he made it his. He more than anything is the centerpiece of Billy Wilder’s Witness for the Prosecution, and that’s saying a lot. When Laughton is on screen with Wilder directing, in a Wilder script based on a work by Agatha Christie and a cast that features Elsa Lanchester, Marlene Dietrich, and Tyrone Power, you’re saying quite a bit.

Tubby, cigar-smoking, monocle-wearing barrister Sir Wilfrid Robarts (Laughton) has just returned to his law offices after a long stay in the hospital due to a heart attack. He’s returned against the wishes of his doctors and most especially his nurse, Miss Plimsoll (Elsa Lanchester). However, returned he has, and he’s been given a nice load of calm cases to try—nothing exciting and most especially no murders. These plans go immediately awry when we meet Leonard Vole (Tyrone Power), a man who is accused of murdering an old widow for her money.