The movie Peach Blood/ Peach Case/An Analysis of a Murder (1959) american standard collection The Criterion Collection Blu-ray Edition cover
Peach Blood/Peach Case/Analysis of a Murder (1959), a feature film directed by Otto Preminger (1906–1986) and starring James Stewart (1908–1997) by Otto Preminger (1906–1986).
This film is known as one of the most classic court films, this is a rather fascinating courtroom reasoning film, although the choreography is slightly exaggerated, but the lines are bold and powerful, the climax is undulating, and it is very able to grasp the audience's emotions. Everyone has a stunning performance.
The film involves many legal concepts, not only the facts of the case, but also the procedures of criminal proceedings. From forensic evaluation to evidence submission, from jury review to cross-examination. It is very helpful for friends who want to understand the criminal justice process in the United States.
Director Otto Preminger's "Peach Blood Case" once again challenged the Hollywood television system, because it was a powerful courtroom legal film with sexually exposed themes, which caused great controversy at the time; there were many bold dialogues in the film, including terms such as sexual intercourse, sluts and semen, which were the first time on the big screen in the United States, don't forget that it was 1959!
Director Otto Preminger (Bald Man in White) featured on the set of the film Peach Blood/Peach Case/Analysis of a Murder (1959).
By the end of the 1950s, U.S. electrical inspectors had learned to turn a blind eye, and inspectors everywhere were less likely to interfere with film freedom. Otto Preminger has long been familiar with this set, and he still wants them to open their eyes to see their new tricks at this most lax moment of electrical inspection.
Time magazine commented after the film's release that "a courtroom scene that seems to talk more about dissection [referring to the flesh] than murder." Playing the defendant's lawyer is the honest James Stewart holding the panties of The defendant Mason (Ben Gazzara) Lieutenant's wife, Laura (Lee Remick), pointing and saying "Panties."
Stills from the film Peach Blood/Peach Case/An Analysis of a Murder (1959).
This is certainly not unusual in court, but it is surprising on screen. However, the electrical inspection law is not surprised, because these defenses and references to the nouns will happen in reality. Moreover, there are many court news in the newspaper, such as words involving love killing or rape. Finally decided to let them pass, they were too lazy to fight the director Otto Preminger anymore...
In 1960, "Peach Blood Case" received six nominations at the 32nd Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay, and was selected as one of the top ten court films in the "American Film History Genre" half a century later. Court films are typical genre films of constitutionally built America, telling singular legal cases and exaggerating the hard work of these cases in promoting freedom of expression and democratic human rights.
Stills from the movie Peach Blood/Peach Case/Analysis of a Murder (1959), James Stewart Ben Gazzara Arthur O'Connell
Watching such court films is particularly bloodthirsty, because a country's freedom of speech is sometimes defended by a "crazy" individual. But a courtroom film like "Peach Blood" isn't dedicated to making your blood boil, it's elegant, clever, and in line with the taste of the show's male protagonist, Baker (James Stewart) — drinking bourbon, smoking cigars, fishing, listening to jazz, reading old yellow books.
Stills from the movie Peach Blood/Peach Case/Analysis of a Murder (1959), James Stewart
The film does not involve a landmark case of improving the law or rights, nor does it have a Saint Seiya-like party, but rather how lawyers exonerate the client in the predicament of no evidence, and the actor James Stewart previously played a journalist who went deep into the prison in "Counter Case/ Bizarre Blood Case 777Call Northside 777" (1948), exonerating the murder suspect, and see what his heavenly skills are this time.
After James Stewart was fired from the local prosecutor's office, he one day took over a murder case and acted as a defense lawyer for the defendant. The defendant, Mason, was a young lieutenant, and after his wife Laura told him that he had been raped and beaten, he was furious and frantically sought out the bastard and shot him.
On the set of the film Peach Blood/Peach Case/Analysis of a Murder (1959), director Otto Preminger (right) interrogates Ben Gazzara (left) in an analysis court for Ben Gozana
However, because the police did not find evidence that Lieutenant Mason's wife Laura was raped, plus this wife, according to Lieutenant Mason's prisonmates, what a debauchery! According to the lawyer's female secretary: it is the kind of woman that men like to take advantage of her. So this drama, there is a look...
More than two hours of the film are spent in court, which cannot but involve some legal concepts and defense techniques. At first the plaintiff's defense lawyer Claude Danser (George W. Bush) C. Scott George C. Scott) is cunning and does not pursue Lieutenant Mason's motives for killing people but only lieutenants.
Stills from the film Peach Blood/Peach Case/Analysis of a Murder (1959), by Lee Remick
We all know that a fair trial should link conduct to motive, and the plaintiff's lawyer, Claude Denser, did not do so in order to cover up the truth. So James Stewart scrambled to grab the sperm test against the deceased Quayle, and although it was an unanswered question, and the judge declared it negligible, as Lieutenant Mason wondered, "How could a jury ignore what they had already heard?" James Stewart said, "No," and he managed to turn the jury's attention from murder to rape to elicit sympathy.
James Stewart also used a dangerous tightrope walking and touching professional principles, that is, assisting or guiding clients in finding a criminal justification.
Stills from the film Peach Blood/Peach Case/Analysis of a Murder (1959), by George W. Bush. C. Scott George C. Scott – his best-known film is General Patton (1970)
So during the trial, Lieutenant Mason claimed that after his wife Laura told him that Quill had raped her, he developed a temporary insanity and went to the hotel to kill Quill entirely under an "irrepressible impulse".
James Stewart succeeded in finding the justification for the crime and precedent for the client (the United States followed case law), but this was only a stage victory, and the rape had to be consolidated before the jury could fully sympathize with Lieutenant Mason. How to tame? In the absence of witnesses, only physical evidence can be sought.
Where is the physical evidence? Just as Clinton's scandal with Lewinsky ended up thanking Lewinsky for her skirt, dna testing of the semen that remained on it was revealed, and the case in "Peach Blood" was also thanks to Lieutenant Mason's wife's panties, although the panties disappeared after the crime.
A key character appears, Miss Mary Pirant (played by Kathryn Grant). Who? She was in charge of Quill's hotel, and the day after Quill was killed, she found the panties in the laundry room while sorting and sorting through the dried laundry, and she threw it into a rag box.
Stills from the film Peach Blood/Peach Case/Analysis of a Murder (1959), Kathleen Grant
But at trial, when she realized the seriousness of the problem, that is, there was a rape case behind the murder, she immediately went back to the hotel laundry room to get the pair of underwear as evidence.
Judge Joseph Welch, played by Joseph Welch, had attended the hearings of the infamous Senator McCarthy a few years earlier as a military lawyer, confronting the flappy McCarthy's rebuke, "Don't you understand manners and decency, sir?" Joseph Welch hit him back for his tampering with photographs and letters, "Mr. Senator, do you still have a good heart?" Overnight, McCarthy's reputation was discredited.
Poster for the Belgian version of the film Peach Blood/Peach Case/Analysis of a Murder (1959).
A suspicious rape story and a torn pair of female panties in Peach Blood were not dignified in the film censorship of the time, and Judge Joseph Welch once again took the lead and allowed James Stewart to show them —all right, stylish but dignified, not blood-spurting black thongs. At this point, the evidence is overwhelming and the foregone conclusion has been made.
However, the most shrewd legal elite came to provoke. They even teased harshly that if there was a courtroom disaster museum, then the interrogation of the witness, Miss Mary Pierr, by the plaintiff's defense lawyer Claude Danser in the movie "The Peach Blood Case," should really be the climax of the exhibition, and the visitor would see a serious mistake in detail.
Look at the details — the plaintiff defended Claude Danser, repeatedly accusing Mary Pirant of "you and Quill are lovers", and Mary Pirant stammered, "No..." When she hesitated, Claude Danser pressed further, "Who is Quill?" Eventually, Mary Pillante said, "He's my father." Claude Danser returned to the defense bench in frustration, "No problem. ”
Claude Danser attempts to use coercion tactics to make Mary Pirante a perjury, but he is not sure how she will answer, and the bomb she throws undoubtedly shatters the logic of his "jealous lover"—because of jealousy, he plants the booty.
Stills from the film Peach Blood/Peach Case/Analysis of a Murder (1959), by George W. Bush. C. Scott George C. Scott
So where is the error? Think about it: Quill was Marie Pirante's father and her father had been murdered, so as usual, it seemed that Mary Pillante should have made time the next day to grieve, or plan a funeral, take care of his father's business, or something like that, rather than be busy with mundane chores like tidying up the hotel laundry?
So she could have made a mistake about "when the panties were found," that is, not the day after her father's murder, but one day after the big shock, which meant the possibility that Laura would have had enough time to throw the panties into the chute of the laundry room at the Quiell Hotel herself.
If so, things would be different... So from a professional point of view, perhaps lawyers like to emulate Claude Daser's "home run" because this strategy is compelling and step-by-step, but they ignore the point that putting the unreasonable side of the witness story on the table is the key, and when formulating the defense strategy, it may be more effective to calmly organize the incident according to time.
Legal films are often very good because they have the following elements: first, the case itself is full of suspense and attracts the audience to watch; secondly, through the slow development of the plot, more case insiders will be discovered, and sometimes the previous conclusions will be overturned, which tests the audience's intelligence very much; third, watching the logical court arguments is not only a kind of enjoyment, but also an exercise in their own understanding.
Stills from the movie "Peach Blood/Peach Case/Analysis of a Murder" (1959), the verdict was announced at the time of the verdict
This is also one of the reasons why "Peach Blood Case" can be included in the top ten court films in film history, and in terms of tactical analysis, it is really a good case. Today, movie owners may emphasize entertainment over professionalism, and Al Pacino's Doctor Of Death/You Don't Know Jack (2010) focuses on how he legalizes euthanasia rather than euthanasia in court.
But even with "dramatic" production licenses, Peach Blood is still one of the crudest and most authentic court films to date.
If you're careful enough, you'll also find a man sitting in the front row of the defense seat in the film, paul Bergman, who teaches UCLA law a lesson on "Trial Defense and Evidence" in real life, leads the school's "Street Law" workshop, and co-wrote Court to Court to Movie with Michael Esmer Michael Asimow. This kind of honest rigor, maybe only black and white old movies have?
The film is more about procedural justice than consequential justice, showing the real duty of a lawyer to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the parties to the greatest extent under the rule of the law.
Stills from the film Peach Blood/Peach Case/Analysis of a Murder (1959), in which Lee Remick teases James Stewart
This is definitely the film that best embodies the language art in the trial, and the 160-minute film spends most of its time in courtroom trials, and the chewing words and witty words are vividly expressed in this movie. James Stewart tried his best to help the person escape the crime, but what is the truth of the matter?
In 1959, the 51-year-old James Stewart added a lot of vicissitudes to his face. At this time, he had just collaborated with the suspense master Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) on a number of immortal masterpieces of film history, which can be described as the second brilliant peak of his acting career. This year, James Stewart and the famous film noir master Otto Preminger presented a classic court film "Peach Blood Case" to fans.
James Stewart and Alfred Hitchcock of Alfred Hitchcock
In the film, James Stewart plays a lawyer who helps a beautiful young woman to show her wronged husband. In his portrayal of the role, James Stewart did not abuse the sunny, decent screen image that had been established before, and although the role of the lawyer was far less serious than the majestic, upright Gregory Peck Gregory Peck (1916-2003) in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), the lawyer who smoked a pipe, often showed a helpless expression, and was slightly sophisticated, but the lawyer who smoked a pipe and often showed a helpless expression also made James S. Stewart is portrayed as plump and lively, very civilian, and even brings a touch of comedy to serious court movies.
Director Otto Preminger (left) watches the actors perform on the set of the film Peach Blood/Peach Case/Analysis of a Murder (1959).
"Peach Blood" gave James Stewart a 5th Oscar nomination for Best Actor and his last nomination for a film emperor.
On the road to the reform of American film censorship, director Otto Preminger was instrumental. In 1960, he also hired Dalton Trumbo (1905-1976), one of the blacklisted "Hollywood Ten," to write Exodus (1960), which Dalton Trumbo, of course, wrote anonymously; around the same time Kirk Douglas (1916-2020) hired Trump to write Spartacus Sparacus (1960).
The movie Peach Blood/ Peach Case/An Analysis of a Murder (1959) is an American DVD cover
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