Undoubtedly one of the remarkable courtroom drama and mystery adaptations of Agatha Christie’s stage success by none other than the director who perhaps got the maximum number of Oscar nominations as Best Director during two golden decades of Hollywood.Billy Wilder opens the film with light hearted fun where we witness an overweight old lawyer resuming his office accompanied by too caring and nagging nurse. Against her will he catches up with the murder case just to smoke cigar and employs another lawyer but soon the case takes interesting turn when victim’s strange German wife appears and gave vague and strange answers quite confusing to defend the case. The challenge propelled the old lawyer and he applies all his might to win the case. But unlike other courtroom drama the punch of the film comes in final ten minutes when he won the case. It’s a brilliant twist with poetic justice.
Wilder kept the sophisticated British humor running even in the courtroom parallel to the intriguing trial. Charles Laughton’s gave his most memorable performance as one of the most admirable lawyer keeping alive the spark of brilliant sense of humor and in one of the most intriguing character of her career Marlene Dietrich is just impeccable to watch. Wilder again scores his mastery over medium proving why he remained successful in more than one genre.
Ratings-8.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment