Budapest Classic Film Marathon: Witness for the Prosecution

Director: Billy Wilder

Screenplay by Billy Wilder, Harry Kurnitz
Director of photography: Russell Harlan
Music by Matty Malneck, Ralph Arthur Robert, Matty Simmons
Cast: Charles Laughton, Marlene Dietrich, Tyrone Power, Elsa Lanchester

Trauner & Wilder

Sir Wilfrid Robarts, the famous barrister, has just suffered a heart attack but soon finds himself unable to resist taking on a new, apparently lost case. Leonard Vole is suspected of murdering a wealthy elderly widow, who just happened to leave him all her money. The barrister believes in the innocence of Vole but reckons there is something not quite right about his wife, Cristine (a particularly memorable Marlene Dietrich). In court, he is faced with an increasing number of unexpected twists – after all, this is an Agatha Christie work. Witness for the Prosecution is one of the first masterpieces of that long and fruitful collaboration that came about between the director Billy Wilder and the Hungarian-born set designer Alexandre Trauner. 

Other programs of the Budapest Classic Film Marathon in Urania >>