Favorite Films (lists up to participating site members)

[Mayerling]

And, despite putting down many John Ford films, I forgot "The Informer".

[Robert]

Another one is "The Quare Fellow."

[Mayerling]

Trial or Courtroom films

Recently Turner Classic Movie network was showing it's August "Summer Under the Stars" series, and did Marlene Dietrich. So I as watching several of her films, and saw "Witness For the Prosecution". I always enjoy it, despite knowing it's trick. The film got me to thinking of a new category.

Films involving trials (real or imaginary) and courtrooms:

1) Witness For the Prosecution (1958) [the later television version was quite inferior, despite Ralph Richardson and Diana Rigg being in the Charles Laughton and Marlene Dietrich roles]
2) Twelve Angry Men (1955)
3) The Paradine Case (1947) [despite being somewhat boring, it's Hitchcock's only trial movie]
4) The Lady From Shanghai (1947) [extended courtroom scenes with Orson Welles - defended by Everett Sloan - tried for killing Glen Anders]
5) They Don't Believe Me (1947) [the conclusion of this murder trial film with Robert Young is melodramatic, but quite unique]
6) Madeleine (1950)
7) Les Girls (1958) [A musical - music by Cole Porter - dealing with a libel suit, that dares asks us, "Rashomon" like, "What is truth?"]
8) Oscar Wilde (1960) - with Robert Morley
9) Oscar Wilde (1960) - with Peter Finch
10) Wilde (1997) - with Stephen Fry
11) The Life of Emile Zola (1937) [besides the Dreyfus and Esterhazi Court Martials there is Zola's trial for libel for his "J'Accuse" editorial]
12) Sergeant Rutledge (1961) [John Ford's court martial trial of Woody Strode for rape]
13) Young Mr. Lincoln (1940) [Ford's look at Abe Lincoln - Henry Fonda - as the defense attorney in the Armstrong Murder case of 1842]
14) Prisoner of Shark Island (1937) [Ford's look at the trial of Dr. Samuel Mudd - Warner Baxter - as one of the Lincoln Conspirators]
15) Conspirator (2011) [More recent, somewhat fuller, account of the 1865 Conspiracy trial, this time looking at the trial of Mrs. Surratt]
16) The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1939) [the Doctor's homicide trial at the end is given in a small concluding section, and makes one ponder who can be insane: the defendant, the jury, the law]

Jeff

[Robert]

Anatomy Of A Murder
Mr Deeds Goes To Town
The Winslow Boy
Libel
The Caine Mutiny
A Matter Of Life And Death
Inherit The Wind
Kind Hearts And Coronets
Brothers In Law
A Man For All Seasons
My Learned Friend
Laughter In Paradise

[Steadmund Brand]

Great new category!!!

you have named some great ones.. off the top of my head I'll add a few.. and probably a few more later after I think about it more

1- From the Hip- Pretty forgotten ( and I guess forgettable film) from 1987...however worth giving another look as John Hurt is FANTASTIC!!!
2-Judgment At Nuremberg- 1961
3- the Trial- (1962 version with Tony Perkins and Orson Wells)
4-The Verdict- 1982- may have been a bit overhyped but still a good film
5- The Devils- 1971- quite possibly Ken Russell’s masterpiece, certainly his most controversial
6- My Cousin Vinny- 1992- I just saw this film again after MANY years...still holds up and is quite funny
7-M- 1931- ok.. not a proper "court room" but powerful just the same!!
8- Lenny-1974- does take some "liberty" with the events but Hoffman is amazing as Lenny Bruce...
and
9- Duck Soup- 1933- The Marx Brothers at their anarchistic best.. and the greatest trial scene ever to turn into a lavish musical number!!!

Steadmund Brand

[Robert]

The Untouchables
The Crucible
10 Rillington Place
Was there a court scene in The Wrong Man? I should think there was.

[Mayerling]

01) Trial (Glenn Ford, Arthur Kennedy)
02) Boomerang
03) A Few Good Men
04) The Purple Heart (Japanese War Crimes Trial of some of the Doolittle Raiders)

Jeff

[sdreid]

Compulsion (1959) Based on Leopold and Loeb

Please Murder Me (1956) Where Raymond Burr plays a defense lawyer prior to Perry Mason

A Place in the Sun (1951) Both inspired by a true case and with Burr in the courtroom

[GUT]

Run away Jury


Not a movie just a TV series dear old Horrace Rumpole.

[Robert]

Murder Most Foul.

[Mayerling]

01) The File on Thelma Jordan
02) The Story on Page One
03) The Tattered Dress
04) The Long Dark Hall
05) Odor in the Court (an hysterically funny Clark & McCullough short where as shyster lawyers - especially Bobby Clark - they wreck a divorce case)
06) Gentlemen Prefer Blonds (the hearing regarding ownership of the tiara)
07) Midnight (the concluding divorce proceeding)

Jeff

[GUT]

The Castle

[DJA]

Bitter Springs.

Michael Pate out of character as....an Australian.

A movie before it's time.

[Robert]

Beyond A Reasonable Doubt.

[DJA]

Glad you agree