The founder of the suspense film, "Prosecution Witness", after-view feelings

"Prosecution Witness" is a film watched by chance, as a black-and-white film in the 60s of the last century, in the suspense, science fiction, brain-burning film rampant today, is still not inferior, Douban score as high as 9.6 points, indicating that its quality is still highly ornamental today. Attracted a large audience.

Released in 1957, "Prosecution Witness", also known as "Plaintiff's Witness", is a script of the same name adapted by the talented Hollywood director Billy Wilder from the famous detective fiction writer Agatha Christie, as a master who has been nominated for 21 Oscars and won 6 Oscars, including two best directors, "Prosecution Witness" is definitely one of Billy Wilder's masterpieces.

At that time, the male and female protagonists were Tyrone Bowa and Marin Dedre that were very popular in Hollywood. Playing the role of defence lawyer Sir Roberts is Charles Lawton, who was also the first actor to play Agatha's detective Poirot. Such a luxurious lineup already hints at the good of this movie.

What's special about this movie is that it shows us how far a film adaptation of a novel can go. To be sure, "Prosecution Witness" is not the best of Grandma Agatha's novels, and in terms of reading pleasure, it is far less than the famous "Massacre on the Nile" and "Murder on the Orient Express".

But the adaptation of the film, whether it is the meticulous portrayal of the psychology of the people in the case, or the "subtle sense of violation" that Grandma Agatha is best at, is fully revealed.

In the movie, the defense lawyer, the loyal nurse, and even the deceased who did not pay much attention to the original book, the maid of the deceased, these insignificant supporting roles, are very wonderful.

What impressed me in the movie was wave after wave of reversals, even though the play was small fresh meat plus old drama bones, but I still wanted to say from the perspective of the heroine Marlene Dietrich, black and white film, still can not reduce her charm, in the movie Dietrich appeared not early, but from the moment she stepped into the lawyer's old and dark office, you feel as if the aura of the air has changed, unlike the fleshy Marilyn Monroe, she has another indescribable sexiness, both mysterious and elegant and cold and domineering.

Deep eyes, alienated face, she is like a dazzling and untouchable color in the whole movie, vivid and uncertain. She doesn't need to smile warmly at you, as long as those clear eyes look at you, you will be seduced by the cold mystery. You may even begin to be jealous of her husband in the movie, and you will think that this man Ho Tak Ho can find such a wife. She was 56 years old when she was shooting this film, but you can't see the traces of time in her.

I never understood why some men would love this kind of cool sexiness. It's hard for me to link sexiness to coolness. If, like me, you have such a question, then go to "Prosecution Witness", and the movie Dietrich will give you the answer.

In the movie, every time she appears is cold and distant, at the request of the defense lawyer, when telling her past, she is also not salty, the singer in the German bar, concealing the marriage history, marrying the American soldier, first for his coffee, and then moved the mind of using the soldier to come to the United States, at home to be a good wife and mother, but also only to repay this kindness, you can not see her love for her husband, the husband is just an innocuous existence for her.

She was cold and emotionless, like a perfect statue. When a man is faced with such a cold and beautiful object, what is aroused in his heart is the desire to conquer, or the curiosity to explore? I don't know, but as a viewer, I'm drawn to this unknown, mysterious beauty, an unstoppable surrender.

The defense lawyer also lost a lot of color in front of such a Dietrich, and all he could do was to defend the prosecution lawyer. The strongest and weakest evidence on both sides came from the defendant's wife.

But this witness was unreliable, and even changed from a defense witness to a prosecution witness. Just when Robart's lawyer is at a loss, an accident occurs, and the mysterious woman turns the situation around, and she has evidence of Dedre's adultery, which shows that she is deliberately lying to frame her husband so that she can live with her lover.

Robart's lawyer used evidence of adultery in court to beat her to death. Dietrich screamed uncontrollably, and when she returned to the witness stand, she cried, large drops of tears slid down her beautiful cheeks.

The camera almost reluctantly hunts down every trace of a teardrop slipping off. This is almost the first time that I, knowing the other party's evil deeds, still greedily and heartbrokenly capture the tears of Dietrich on the screen, and even can't bear to look at her sadness.

At this time, Didree is another kind of beauty, she is not weak, but it is heartbreaking and suffocating, which is more lethal than the tears of any girl whose love sinus has just opened, because it is too rare.

Subjectively, the girl has always been delicate and fragile, so the girl's tears also come frequently, but Dedley is almost indifferent and rational in the movie, a strong and domineering existence. Her crying is a disruption of your perception.

Let you see, this always cold woman, the soft side, how can not move.

Until her husband is acquitted, the plot suddenly turns around. When Dietrich triumphantly made the lawyer realize that he had fallen into her trap and gave perjury for the couple. I believe we are all as unbelievable as lawyers. The good villain heroine, to her husband to death, and the lover double fly?!

This affectionate Dietrich, she is still the cold and witty, powerful woman, she is also the villain who is desperate for love, but her deep affection, love is her murderous husband.

She knew that a wife who loved her husband deeply was recognized by everyone as a way to cover up her husband, so she did not hesitate to fake adultery to make her words more convincing and exonerate her husband. She sacrificed her reputation to save her husband. But you think you're done here?! How this can establish the title of the founding father of this film. When the girl sitting in the hearing seat appeared on the stage as if the black child had turned white, the girl's plump cheeks, the smile like a rose, the exquisite figure outlined by the fine flower dress, her beautiful youth and carnal desire, she threw herself into the arms of Dedeli's husband. At that moment, even in the black-and-white movie, I could see the blood on Dietrich's face fading. She forced herself to calm down, but her voice asked with a little trembling, "Leonard, who is this girl?" ”。 In fact, as smart as she is, how can she not know that she is calculated at this moment. But the heartbreak of being calculated by the people she loved dearly made Dietrich collapse.

I stared at the camera, not understanding why the contrast between the same person and the front and back would be so huge. One minute she was a mysterious, indifferent queen, and the next she was a pale and fragile woman, a change that was only a short gasp.

Someone on Douban once commented, "The lawyer has three inches of tongue, the woman attacks the heart, both are not poisonous, the most poisonous man's heart."

At the end of the film, at the suggestion of a lawyer, she grabs a fruit knife as evidence and kills her husband who betrayed her. When she is caught by the police and taken away, looking back at Attorney Robert, there is a brief curtain-like gaze, which is her last close-up in the entire film. There was a lot of stuff in that look, it was self-deprecating and sad.