When “Anatomy of a Murder” was released in 1959, the New York Times titled it “A Court Classic” but their film critic Bosley Crowther wasn’t quite able to classify it. Was the film a melodrama? A character study? Or just another attempt by director Otto Preminger to push the limits of the Production Code? This critique will successfully classify “Anatomy of a Murder” as a lawyer film by exploring the visual style of the film, considering its themes, and examining the director’s vision.
An examination of Preminger’s work reflects someone who is detached, impersonal and objective, characteristics that in part, also describe Anatomy of a Murder’s protagonist, Paul Biegler (James Stewart). Biegler’s not a bad sort. He’s actually quite affable. He chooses to live his life quietly, his intimate relationships limited to those with his secretary Maida (Eve Arden) and his legal sparring partner, former counselor of law, Parnell McCarthy (Arthur O’Connell).
Like Preminger, Biegler remains morally neutral, neither condemning nor condoning the thoughts, actions or deeds of those around him, notably the alcohol dependent McCarthy, the immature yet nubile Laura Manion (Lee Remick) and her quite possibly guilty husband, Lieutenant Manion (Ben Gazzara). This character trait seems particularly out of place given that Biegler is a former prosecutor who is, for the first time, defending a man accused of murder.
A second characteristic of Preminger’s work is the use of well-known actors who themselves – either their public persona or in their own body of professional work – symbolize their onscreen role. With the exception of Arden and O’Connell, Preminger deviates here by casting relatively unknowns Remick, Gazzara and George C. Scott (as Claude Dancer) in supporting but critical roles. Preminger’s purpose is to discourage us from making snap judgments about those we do not know.
Preminger further projects this message through his direction of three scenes early in the film, as Biegler is getting to know Laura. Biegler’s introduction to Laura is through a telephone call she places to him. Although she doesn’t appear on screen, the late hour of the call and loud noise in the background suggest Laura is at a party or at a bar. Biegler doesn’t seem phased by – at least he doesn’t comment on – how inappropriate it is for a Laura to be hanging out in a bar while her husband sits in jail, accused of murdering a man who allegedly raped her.
The second scene occurs the next morning when Biegler formally meets Laura at the jail. Preminger frames this scene as a medium long shot, from the vantage point of someone who might be watching from across the street or otherwise close by. We watch as Laura saunters up to Biegler wearing a form fitting sweater and tight pants. Her dress and sultry sashay sharply contrast the other women who appear on screen in the film, none of whom are seen wearing pants. It’s as easy to appreciate her good looks, as it is to chastise Laura for her complete lack of regard for the seriousness of the matter at hand. When Biegler shoos her away, we understand why he’s simultaneously distracted and annoyed.
In the third of these scenes, Preminger shifts the point of view to that of Biegler and slows the pace of the film considerably as Biegler interviews Laura. Biegler needs time to assess this creature. From his perspective, we see Laura isn’t a seductress lounging on his couch, but a naive young thing, not nearly as sophisticated as she pretends to be. As soon as Biegler accepts this about her, Preminger changes the point of view, again making the viewer a third person observer.
Preminger is a master at using point of view to point to differing ideologies and to underscore battles for dominance. In Anatomy of a Murder, this is most evident in the scenes between Biegler and Lieutenant Manion. Preminger is completely transparent in his staging of the two men who clash on every level. Camera angles, shadows and shot composition are filmmaking techniques that Preminger employs to clarify which man is prevailing over the other.
While this may suggest Film Noir, Preminger actually takes us several steps beyond that world, demonstrating that theatricality is not compromised by realism. Virtually every scene of Anatomy of a Murder occurs during the day and many scenes were shot on location. This is a radical departure from the Film Noir stylists whose comfort zone didn’t extend further than the long, dark shadows illustrative of the genre. The result is a film that helps usher in a Transition Period, challenging the adult film-going public to look beyond long, dark shadows to uncover complicated plots that sometimes include criminals who blend with the innocents, and introductions of new criminal motives in eroticized violence, existential mystery, death, and nightmarish irrationality.
Biegler faces similar challenges. Despite his tenure as the resident prosecutor, one wonders if he has firsthand exposure to any crime greater than the theft of a case of good bourbon. Biegler, like the other residents of this town where no one locks their doors, has more experience with natural law than with the types of cases he studies at night with McCarthy. Relevant here is that Preminger refuses to allow his protagonist’s moral discourse to get the best of him. Biegler’s pragmatism is challenged at every turn as he struggles to understand the Manion marriage and to accept the Lieutenant’s almost manufactured plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. Snubbing irony, doubt and enigma, Biegler perseveres as the truth reveals itself, his final moral triumph arising from pure honesty, brilliance and a lot of patience on his part.
This journey is not an easy one – for Biegler or for the audience – but because it lies at the core of the plot, “Anatomy of a Murder” is most accurately categorized as a lawyer film rather than a trial film. Indeed, Preminger exploits the dramatic potential of the courtroom setting to demonstrate the moral and psychological consequences of an original misrecognition. However the only place the film exists as a trial film is in the sense that the audience is invited by Preminger to arrive at their own conclusions about the truth of what is said.
References
“Anatomy of a Murder” (1959)
Shots in the Mirror: Crime Films and Society by Nicole Rafter
“Anatomy of a Murder–The “Lecture”” by Michael Asimow
“Breaking the Code: A Historical Footnote” by Peter Dart (Cinema Journal, Vol. 8, No. 1)
“Cinema Sings the Blues” by Charles Merrell Berg (Cinema Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2)
Editor’s Notebook (Film Quarterly, Vol. 13, No. 2)
“My Favorite Year 1959” by Donald Chase
“Saul Bass: “…To Hit The Ground Running…” by Jim Supanick
“True Lies: Changing Images of Crime in British Postwar Cinema” by Jessica Allen, Sonia Livingstone and Robert Reiner (European Journal of Communication)
New York Times film review by Bosley Crowther
Variety film review
href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomy_of_a_Murder”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomy_of_a_Murder
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052561/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0695937/
http://www.prisma-online.de/tv/person.html?pid=otto_preminger
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/preminger.html