Anatomy of a Murder

Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
IMDB #209 [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052561/]

The Gist:
This is basically the original badass courtroom flick. And like many things, its contemporary brethren pale in comparison. However, the film is by no means perfect. For one thing it has a slow start and I think just a little could have been cut from the beginning. All the exposition with Jimmy and whoever the old guy was is perfect but after that it's little slow on the uptake. Beyond that, some might take issue with how little the film goes into the actual reality of the murder, though it alludes to there being something beyond what is shown on film. I actually liked this aspect because you have the same vantage as your protagonist, the always awesome James Stewart. Anyway, beyond this its all good. Stewart chews up scenery in the court, playing up one of his more wily characters. But the true soul of the film is the oddities of the character, his playing jazz in a juke joint or how he talks to the judge about the best way to catch frogs with a fishing line. Anyway it's a great film, gives the back and forth in the courtroom very well and manages to please with its character performances too. Well at least with Stewart, almost everyone is else is a predictably two dimensional character. Maybe not George C. Scott or whoever played the judge, they both felt real as well.