Witness for the Prosecution Blu-ray - Tyrone Power / Marlene Dietrich / Charles Laughton

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

Directed by Billy Wilder
USA 1957

Having just recovered from a heart attack, fabled British barrister Sir Wilfred Robards (Charles Laughton) has been ordered by his doctor to give up everything he holds dear-brandy, cigars and especially courtroom cases. Robards' already shaky resolve to follow doctor's orders flies out the window when he takes up the defense of Leonard Vole (Tyrone Power), a personable young man accused of murdering a rich old widow. The case becomes something of a sticky wicket when Vole's "loving" German wife Christine (Marlene Dietrich) announces that she's not legally married to Robards' client-and she fully intends to appear as a witness for the prosecution! At the close of this film, a narrator implores the audience not to divulge the ending; we will herein honor that request. A delicious Billy Wilder mixture of humor, intrigue and melodrama, Witness for the Prosecution is distinguished by its hand-picked supporting cast: John Williams as the police inspector, Henry Daniell as Robards' law partner, Una O'Connor as the murder victim's stone-deaf maid, Torin Thatcher as the prosecutor, Ruta Lee as a sobbing courtroom spectator, and Charles Laughton's wife Elsa Lanchester as Robards' ever-chipper nurse (a role especially written for the film, so that Lanchester could look after Laughton on the set). And keep an eye out for that uncredited actress playing the vengeful-and pivotal-cockney. Adapted by Wilder, Harry Kurnitz and Larry Marcus from the play by Agatha Christie, Witness for the Prosecution was remade for television in 1982.

Excerpt from MRQE located HERE

***

The undisputed star of this courtroom drama is Alexander Trauner's magnificent recreation of the Old Bailey, which is just as well, since the presence of Charles Laughton as the defence counsel, and the film's origins as an Agatha Christie novel and play, combine to give the movie a heavy - almost stolid - theatrical flavour. Tyrone Power is surprisingly good as the man accused of murdering his mistress, but the swift twists and turns of Ms Christie's plot soon drain Dietrich and Laughton's roles of any dramatic credibility.

Excerpt from TimeOut located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: December 17th, 1957

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Review: Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

Box Cover		CLICK to order from: Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:56:37.407
Video	1.66:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 41,614,006,159 bytes Feature: 37,906,163,712 bytes Video Bitrate: 39.37 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate Blu-ray:
Audio	DTS-HD Master Audio English 1556 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1556 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit) Commentary: Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Subtitles	English (SDH), None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Kino 1.66:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 41,614,006,159 bytes Feature: 37,906,163,712 bytes Video Bitrate: 39.37 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historian Joseph McBride, Author of Billy Wilder: Dancing on the Edge • Billy Wilder and Volker Schlondorff discuss WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION (6:31) • Theatrical Trailer (3:08) Blu-ray Release Date: February 6th, 2024 Standard Blu-ray Case inside slipcase Chapters 10

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (February 2024): Kino have re-transferred Billy Wilder's Witness for the Prosecution to Blu-ray. We compared the Kino 2014 and Masters of Cinema 2018 Blu-rays of Wilder's Witness for the Prosecution HERE. This new (2024) 1080P advances over both previous editions with a higher (max'ed out) bitrate and the image shows deeper black levels and superior layered contrast. The improvement is marginal but exists ands we have compared frame captures below.

NOTE: We have added 40 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Kino use a DTS-HD Master dual-mono track (24-bit where it was previously 16-bit) in the original English language. Witness for the Prosecution has scant aggression (a bar fight etc.) The score was by Matty Malneck (some of his music used in Thieves' Highway, Some Like It Hot, The Benny Goodman Story, Love in the Afternoon) sounding clean with consistent dialogue in the lossless transfer. Kino offer optional English (SDH) subtitles - something that was not available on their 2014 release - and their Blu-ray is Region 'A'-locked.

The Kino Blu-ray offers a new commentary by film historian Joseph McBride, author of Billy Wilder: Dancing on the Edge. McBride is one of the best and can talk with authority about Wilder and much of the film production, the director's idiosyncrasies, his strength of story construction, while referencing his classics; The Lost Weekend, Double Indemnity, Sunset Blvd., Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, his genre diversity and being American cinema's greatest social satirist. It was another rewarding discussion from this esteemed commentarist. The rest of the 2024 Kino Blu-ray extras duplicate their 2014 edition which included a 7-minute video piece, with director Volker Schlöndorff as host (an excerpt from his excellent "Billy Wilder Speaks" documentary from 2006), showing footage of Billy Wilder talking about Agatha Christie's writing and Witness for the Prosecution - mostly in German with English subtitles although the conversation is interrupted by a phone call where Wilder is then speaking French. There is also a 3-minute trailer in 1080P but with damage.

Billy Wilder's Witness for the Prosecution is is considered one of the great courtroom dramas in cinema history. It has a dream cast with Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton, and Elsa Lanchester. There are elements of film noir, but is more considered a sharp legal mystery thriller. Marlene Dietrich only accepted the part of Christine Vole/Helm (also considered for Vivien Leigh) on the condition that Billy Wilder direct. Some may notice that the German nightclub bar, where Leonard and Christine first meet, is called Die blaue Laterne (The Blue Lantern), which is a reference to Dietrich's famous film The Blue Angel. Kino's Blu-ray upgrade for image, subtitle addition, audio and new commentary escalate this to double-dip territory. Buy with confidence and enjoy a revisitation of this classic.