Anatomy of a Murder

The courtroom drama is just great. At least in this case. It's not at all about showing the viewer how the murder happened; it's mainly about how it's described, and that's completely sufficient. It's powerful because the attorneys make it powerful. Great performances, with James Stewart once again showing what a legend he was. I could watch that man forever. Preminger underlines everything with excellent direction. (03/16/2015)

A very well-made courtroom drama with occasional objectively humorous moments, elsewhere pretty dramatic and mostly rather unlikely (I’m rather doubtful that what the defense attorney does would have been admissible back then), famous at the time for scandalous elements such as “panties". But primarily it has great actors, starting with Stewart who has no trouble acting his way though even rather cheap scenes where he has to play angry or emotional. Despite the 160 minute running time, it isn’t boring at all, but there are a couple of scenes that today we might expect to see in the “cut scenes" section of a DVD. (04/23/2005)