January 3, 2008

 

Anatomy of a Murder, the best-selling true-crime novel set in Michigan, became an Oscar-nominated film in 1959. Its gripping story of homicide and temporary insanity hasn’t lost an iota of fascination in nearly 50 years since its release.

View the courtroom drama on Sunday, Jan. 13 at 1:30 pm at the Michigan Theater. The special screening is sponsored by the Washtenaw County Bar Association. WCBA is a voluntary association of Washtenaw County lawyers and judges providing services for both professionals and consumers, including a lawyer referral service. Member lawyers will be on hand following the film to answer questions.

The film’s star-studded cast includes James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Eve Arden and George C. Scott, among other luminaries. Otto Preminger directed from the novel by Robert Traver. Duke Ellington’s sensational soundtrack for the film won a 1959 Grammy Award.

From the start, we know that army 2nd Lt. Manion is guilty of killing bartender Barney Quill. His claim of temporary insanity after Quill raped Manion’s wife is the centerpiece of the trial. In the hands of dueling attorneys, ambiguity and obfuscation abound.

"No one entirely means what they say, except the presiding judge played by Joseph Welch, whose impassioned censure of Joseph McCarthy during the Army-McCarthy hearings hastened the senator’s downfall… Perched on his bench, avuncular and wearily tolerant of his charges' calculated histrionics, he sits atop a lonely moral high ground." – Jessica Winter, Time Out London.