Billy Wilder's comic courtroom drama, taken from an Agetha Christie play, has Charles Laughton as a barrister defending Tyrone Power against a murder charge.
Sir Wilfred has just had a small heart attack and is about to be forced into what he sees as the slow death of tax cases and holidays in Bermuda. When the French case comes along Sir Wilfred sees it as a last chance to prevent a miscarriage of justice and perhaps have a little fun in court, that is if his nurse Miss Plimsoll doesn't find the brandy in his Thermos and the cigars in his cane. The case is that of the murder of one Mrs French, a wealthy widow. There is the defendant, Leonard Vole, a cantankerous old housekeeper named Janet but the real person of interest is Vole's German wife Christine, played by Marlene Dietrich. Initially she defends him and gives him an alibi for the killing, but this soon changes and the lies start to come out.
Tyrone Power I can take or leave but Charles Laughton is excellent as always and has a lovely back and forth with Elsa Lanchester, the Bride of Frankinstein, as Mrs Plimsoll. Dietrich is great in her dual roles and her cockney accent seems to be the one Johnny Depp modeled his on.
A very good, very well made and very funny movie.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051201/?ref_=nv_sr_1
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