Anatomy of a Murder

Otto Preminger · 1959 CE · Film · Modern / American · Contemporary

A small-town Michigan lawyer who would rather be fishing takes the defence of an army lieutenant who shot the innkeeper his wife says raped her. Most of the running time is the trial: jurisdictional skirmishing, a psychiatrist on irresistible impulse, a young judge ruling how far the evidence may be described. Its clinical courtroom vocabulary got it banned in Chicago, and Duke Ellington wrote the score.

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