CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

A PROJECT OF
LAW AND LITERATURE
ON
ANATOMY OF MURDER

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

Dr. Pratyush Kaushik Mayank Raj
(Faculty of Law and Literature) Roll No. - 1629
Semester 2nd
B.BA LL.B
Session 2016-2021

1|Page
 DECLARATION BY THE CANDIDATE

I hereby declare that the work reported in the BB.A. LL.B (Hons.) Project Report entitled
ANATOMY OF MURDER submitted at Chanakya National Law University; Patna is
an authentic record of my work carried out under the supervision of Dr. Pratyush Kaushik. I
have not submitted this work elsewhere for any other degree or diploma. I am fully
responsible for the contents of my Project Report.

(Signature of the Candidate)

MAYANK RAJ
Chanakya National Law University, Patna

2|Page
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

IF YOU WANT TO WALK FAST GO ALONE

IF YOU WANT TO WALK FAR GO TOGETHER
A project is a joint endeavor which is to be accomplished with utmost compassion, diligence
and with support of all. Gratitude is a noble response of ones soul to kindness or help
generously rendered by another and its acknowledgement is the duty and joyance. I am
overwhelmed in all humbleness and gratefulness to acknowledge from the bottom of my
heart to all those who have helped me to put these ideas, well above the level of simplicity
and into something concrete effectively and moreover on time.
This project would not have been completed without combined effort of my revered Law and
Literature teacher Dr. PRATYUSH KAUSHIK whose support and guidance was the driving
force to successfully complete this project. I express my heartfelt gratitude to him. Thanks are
also due to my parents, family, siblings, my dear friends and all those who helped me in this
project in any way. Last but not the least; I would like to express my sincere gratitude to our
Law and Literature teacher for providing us with such a golden opportunity to showcase our
talents. Also this project was instrumental in making me know more about the movie
Anatomy of Murder. It was truly an endeavour which enabled me to embark on a journey
which redefined my intelligentsia, induced my mind to discover the intricacies involved in
the Study Legal Ethics Issues in the Movie Anatomy of Murder.

Moreover, thanks to all those who helped me in any way be it words, presence,
Encouragement or blessings...

- Mayank Raj
- 2nd Semester
- B.BA LL.B

3|Page
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgement..3

Table of Contents...4

Aims and Objectives..5

Research Methodology..5

1. Introduction...6-13

2. Plot Analysis...14-20

3. Critical Reception...21-22

4. Legal Ethics Involved in the movie....23-24

5. Conclusion..25-26

Bibliography27

4|Page
 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

Study Legal Ethics Issues In The Movie

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Primary method of research was adopted in the making of this project.

Various literary works and reports from the library and the internet, were used extensively in
collecting the data essential for this study.

5|Page
 INTRODUCTION

As a lawyer, Ive had to learn that people arent just good or just bad. People are many
things. -Paul Biegler
Anatomy of a Murder is a 1959 American courtroom crime drama film directed by Otto
Preminger and adapted by Wendell Mayes from the best-selling novel of the same name
written by Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D. Voelker under the pen name Robert
Traver. Voelker based the novel on a 1952 murder case in which he was the defence attorney.
By 1959, Duke Ellington had appeared in several films with his orchestra, but had never been
commissioned to write a film score. So when Otto Premingers brother Ingo sent Ellington a
script for their latest film project, Anatomy of a Murder, Ellington accepted the assignment
to compose the music. The Preminger brothers were looking for something different for their
films soundtrack and Ellington delivered. The recorded score featured his full big band (and
a small group culled from the band), and it was a jazz score throughout, even though jazz
only played a tangential role in the films storyline. Many jazz critics panned the score at the
time, but now it is considered to be one of Ellingtons greatest works. The Criterion
Collection has issued a new DVD edition of Anatomy with an audio option that makes the
music stand out.1
The film was based a true story, and was based on a book by a Michigan Supreme Court
justice, John Voelker (writing under the pen name, Robert Traver). The film was shot entirely
on location in Ishpeming, Michigan, and some of the scenes were shot in the locations where
the real story had taken place. Paul Biegler (James Stewart) is a former District Attorney who
runs a private law firm from his home in Michigans Upper Peninsula. Struggling to stay
focused on his new role as a defense attorney, Biegler takes the case of Lt. Frederick Manion
(Ben Gazzara), who shot and killed Barney Quill, a local bar owner after he heard that Quill
had raped Mrs. Manion (Lee Remick). The Manions have a tense relationship: she is young,
sexy and flirtatious while he has an inner rage that sometimes spills over into violence. We
never really know how much of the Manions story is true (even after the film is over), and
the film shows how Biegler tries to get Manion acquitted by pleading temporary insanity.
Biegler is assisted by former attorney Parnell (Arthur OConnell) and secretary Maida (Eve
Arden) as he prepares to do battle in the courtroom with current DA Mitch Lodwick (Brooks
West) and hotshot lawyer Claude Dancer (George C. Scott). Judge Weaver (Joseph N.

1
https://the-artifice.com/anatomy-of-a-murder-art-observation/

6|Page
Welch) presides over the courtroom sessions as each attorney displays his methods of trying
to influence the jury. There is a wide range of acting styles: old school Hollywood (Stewart,
Arden, OConnell), Broadway (Scott), Method actors (Gazzara, Remick) and first-timers
(notably Welch, who was a lawyer in real-life and who famously browbeat Sen. Joseph
McCarthy on national television a few years earlier). Despite the differences in styles and
experience, the acting is top-notch across the board, with Stewart, Remick, Gazzara and Scott
providing stunning performances. Otto Preminger keeps the action moving so that the film
seems much shorter than its 161-minute running time might indicate. Ellingtons music is
used sparingly in the film, but it is very effective in enhancing the dramatic action. As Gary
Giddins points out in a supplementary interview on the Criterion DVD, the sound of a
wailing alto sax had been used in several films to portray a femme fatale, but when Ellington
used a Johnny Hodges solo for the initial meeting between Stewart and Remick, it was both a
sarcastic comment on the status quo and the ultimate example of the original concept. Later,
when Stewart takes Remick home after finding her at a local bar, Ellingtons cue Midnight
Indigo heightens the loneliness Remicks character feels while her husband is in jail. While
Ellington wrote specific themes for several of the films characters, he did not always assign
the themes to the same instruments. For example, the theme for Stewarts character is played
at various times by Ray Nance, Paul Gonsalves and Johnny Hodges. Ellington also ghosted
for Stewart for the few times when Stewarts character played piano (on one of those
occasions, Stewart shares the piano bench with Ellington on screen). On the original mono
film soundtrack, the music is back in the mix behind the dialogue, but Criterions disc
includes a 5.1 Dolby Surround track that isolates the dialogue and sound effects to the front
center channel, and spreads Ellingtons soundtrack (originally recorded in stereo) to the other
speakers. This mix brings the music to the forefront and allows the viewer to play closer
attention to the score while still following the films storyline. In addition to the interview
with Giddins, the Criterion edition also includes interviews about Otto Preminger and Saul
Bass, vintage footage of Preminger on William F. Buckleys Firing Line, newsreel footage
and Gjon Mili photos of the films production, the original theatrical trailer, and excerpts
from a work-in-progress documentary about the film.2
When it comes to depicting actual peoples jobs, the truism goes, Hollywood gets everything
wrong with stunning regularity. The rare exception is Otto Premingers Anatomy of a Murder

2
https://the-artifice.com/anatomy-of-a-murder-art-observation/

7|Page
(1959), widely considered among the finest trial films ever made, and maybe more
universally loved by law students than by cineastes.

The films successseven Oscar nominations and excellent box officemade it the first in a
run of films that would constitute the peak accomplishments of Premingers nearly fifty-year
career, firmly establishing the trailblazing independent producer-director among the artistic
and power-brokering elite of the post-studio-system New Hollywood Order (though
Preminger, an iconoclast always, made his headquarters in New York). Its verisimilitude can
be attributed to Premingers working from the story of a real-life trial; his perennial devotion
to location shooting, which took him to the scene of the crime; and his wallflower mise-en-
scne, which observes action at arms length, without imposing interpretation on the viewer.
Preminger also knew his subject. His father, patriarch of a fast-rising Jewish family, had been
a public prosecutor in Austria-Hungary. Otto himself had earned a law doctorate in Vienna in
the 1920s, after striking a deal with his father that allowed him to simultaneously pursue his
desired vocation a few blocks away at the Theatre in der Josefstadt, Max Reinhardts local
base.
Premingers success directing for the stage led to a summons from Twentieth Century-Fox in
1935. No sooner had he arrived, though, than Preminger, already dangerously self-assured at
thirty, unleashed one of his soon-to-be-legendary tantrums on his new boss, Darryl F.
Zanuck. Promptly blackballed, Preminger went into exile in New York, the Third Reichs
Anschluss of Austria shortly forestalling his return home. That rising German menace turned
out to be Premingers return ticket west; his intimidating Teutonic presence got him work
playing screen Nazis until, having done his penance for Fox, he finally got back behind a
camera.3
From his first steady decade as an American director, Preminger is best remembered for his
noirs, spiked with a chill cynicism that would never leave his films. This cycle began with the
success of 1944s Laura and ended with Jean Simmons backing her Jaguar, herself, and
Robert Mitchum off a Beverly Hillsside in 1952s Angel Face.
By then, the major studios were themselves going over the edge, divested of their theater
chains by a 1948 Supreme Court decisionand Preminger, ever the canny careerist, was
ready to step in as the system crumbled. While editing Angel Face, he was in preproduction
on The Moon Is Blue (1953), a sex comedy hed directed with great success on Broadway,

3
https://the-artifice.com/anatomy-of-a-murder-art-observation/

8|Page
now slated to be his first film as an independent producer-director, and set on a collision
course with the Production Code Administration.
The PCA had enforced the morality of American movies since 1934, when it gained teeth
with the ascent of reformer Joseph I. Breen to its head. Its duties consisted of making sure
that sinners were punished, married couples slept in twin beds, and lines like The Moon Is
Blues Men are usually so bored with virgins! were redacted. But Preminger did the
unheard-of: he didnt capitulate, shot his film with its virgin intact, released it to a profit
without Code approval, and became something of a celebrity in the process.
Preminger didnt court controversy, he went steady with it: He frankly depicted heroin
addiction in a 1955 screen adaptation of Nelson Algrens The Man with the Golden Arm. He
helped to bust the blacklist by crediting Dalton Trumbo as screenwriter on 1960s Exodus.
He visited a gay bar in 1962s Advise & Consent, tangled with Cardinal Spellman over
1963s The Cardinal, and in Anatomy of a Murder put the PCAs stock-in-trade, the very idea
of euphemistic or insinuating language, on trial.
Though his subject matter is shrewdly provocative, Premingers style is anything but tabloid.
Trained in proscenium-arch staging, he never forces the viewers eye with his framing. His
scrolling camera work is austere, reserved and reserving of obvious authorial judgment,
partial to two-shot long takes that hold back to let actors and ideas vie with one another
within the frame.
The result of applying this neutral perspective to the court-room drama recalls the words of
George V. Higgins, onetime assistant attorney general for Massachusetts and later a crime
novelist: I build [my stories] the way I used to build a trial, a criminal trial. The witnesses
come along, and each recites what portion of reality he knows about . . . At the end of a book,
or at the end of a trial, either one, you then call upon the jury to reach its own moral decision,
its own ethical judgments about the way the characters have behaved . . . I dont want to
make any judgments for the reader. Thats the readers job.
Trial scenes figure heavily in Premingers fifties output, in Angel Face, The Court-Martial of
Billy Mitchell (1955), and Saint Joan (1957). None of these, however, approached Anatomy
of a Murders popular and critical success when it was released smack in the middle of the
golden age of courtroom dramas that ran roughly from 1957 (12 Angry Men and Perry
Masons first case) to 1962 (To Kill a Mockingbird). This genre groundswell was
contemporary with an effort by such figures as Henry Luce and President Dwight D.

9|Page
Eisenhowerwhose May Day competitor Law Day premiered on May 1, 1958to install
the rule of law as a kind of democratic counter cult to Communism.
Far more ambiguous than rah-rah, Anatomy of a Murder was a provincial trial run for
Premingers upcoming cycle of big, comprehensive institutional studies, films whose
individual stories offer a vantage from which to examine the operations of an entire system in
cross section: the legislative branch while processing a secretary of state nomination in
Advise & Consent, the Catholic churchs hierarchy as seen along a promising Irish-American
priests rise in The Cardinal, the reaction of the United States Navy to the attack on Pearl
Harbor in In Harms Way (1965). Each was adapted from a fat best seller; each but The
Cardinal was written for the screen by Wendell Mayeswhose close collabo-ra-tion with
Preminger began on Anatomy of a Murders 204-page doorstop of a screenplayand all
together they constitute one of the most individualistic runs of large-scale American
filmmaking.
Mayess Anatomy of a Murder script plucked the best lines from a prolix 1958 Book-of-the-
Month Club selection. Narrated by lawyer Paul Biegler, the novel describes the defense of an
army lieutenant, Frederick Manny Manion, arrested for shooting and killing tavern keeper
Barney Quill after Quill allegedly assaulted and raped Manions wife. Robert Traver, the
name on the dust jacket, was the nom de plume of Michigan Supreme Court judge John D.
Voelker. A former prosecuting attorney of Marquette County, in Michigans Upper
Peninsula, Voelker, like Biegler in his novel, had returned to private practice after being
voted out of office. He was then called upon to defend Lieutenant Coleman Peterson, a
soldier accused of the murder of Mike Chenoweth, the proprietor of the Lumberjack Tavern
in Big Bay, on July 31, 1952.
Voelker lent his expertise and his home to Premingers cast and crew, and the shoot took
place in the Upper Peninsula locales of the original crime. Anatomy of a Murder catches
something of the particular immigrant brew of the UP, the French-Canadians and Finns,
while Sam Leavitts deep-focus photography grounds the action in an antiscenic but tactile,
bustling world of waterfront lunch stands and train yards, trailer parks, and automobiles
(Bieglers Pontiac Chieftain plays a significant supporting role).
The cast was stocked with relative unknowns whose subse-quent careers would prove
Preminger prescient. George C. Scott makes an early screen appearance as Claude Dancer, a
prosecutor out of Lansing assisting the local DA. Ben Gazzara plays Lieutenant Manion; a
twenty-four-year-old Lee Remick is his incorrigible flirt of a wife, Laura. And there is one

10 | P a g e
very prominent amateur actor: to play his judge, Preminger cast Joseph N. Welch, the Boston
lawyer who gained lasting fame for his role as Army counsel in the nationally televised
Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954, introducing a phrase that has echoed through the decades:
Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?
Welch was a man of the law turned celebrity, and Anatomy of a Murder, a film very much
aware of the performance aspect of the courtroom, merges Premingers parallel theatrical and
legal educations. Author Stefan Zweig wrote, The imperial theater, the Burgtheater, was for
the Viennese and Austrian more than a stage upon which the actors enacted parts; it was the
microcosm that mirrored the macrocosm. And if all Old Vienna could be found onstage, all
New America was on-screen. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would decline to play a Georgia
senator for Preminger in Advise & Consent, but here lawyer-as-star Welch met a star-as-
lawyer. For his Biegler, Preminger cast James Stewart, who gives a sly, discreetly detached
performance, lips saying one thing while an ironic arch of the eyebrows says another. The
actors warbly candor is here a mask to be taken off and put back on at willin any scene,
much of the pleasure comes from gauging the distance between the line Biegler is giving and
what hes actually thinking, the degree to which his courtroom outbursts are actual eruptions
or kabuki distractions meant to provide some room to strategize.
Actor-director Biegler manages his clients personae as well as his own. He bends Lieutenant
Manion toward a temporary-insanity defense with a featherlight touch in their second
meeting. He counsels Laura Manion, usually partial to skintight western wear, to play a
meek little housewife with horn-rimmed spectacles. Later, he has Mrs. Manions dog
brought to the trial merely to amuse the jury with funny tricks. When the defense is assigned
an army psychiatrist, Bieglers team is disappointed first by his all-American name, then by
the arrival of a fresh-faced Orson Bean (I sort of hoped youd have a beard and wear a
monocle).4
The duel between Biegler and Dancer can be read as the tangling of two directors with rival
visions of the material, quibbling to revise the words entered into the record to convey their
preferred versions: opinion rather than fact; evening walks rather than prowls; Bieglers fine
differentiation between woman chaser, masher, and wolf. We want to see Bieglers draft go
overbut why? Of course, we feel a natural camaraderie after spending the film sequestered
with him and his team. There is also Dancers off-putting cross-examination of Mrs. Manion,
almost a bullying pickup, with Scott jutting his chin into the witness stand, losing his eyes in

4
https://the-artifice.com/anatomy-of-a-murder-art-observation/

11 | P a g e
her hairDo you always wear panties, Mrs. Manion?all to depict the witness as a
wanton woman, a huntress. But no more than Biegler or Dancer does the viewer have any
certitude as to what the actual facts onto which theyre imposing their stories are. Per Leon
Amess lawyer in Angel Face: The truth is what the jury decides. Any truth beyond that
never outs, any more than the broken body in Saul Basss title design comes together again.
Whereas the elusiveness of objective reality is the point of Akira Kurosawas Rashomon
(1950), Premingers film assumes that ambiguity, then shows how the system processes it.
That process, rather than any outcome, is Anatomy of a Murders subject. The verdict
illustrates the legal system at work, though the question of whether a just result has been
achieved is only further occluded as information accumulates. The movie is full of dead ends,
turnoffs that Biegler takes that fail to lead him out of the limbo of his own reasonable doubt.
Its finally uncertain what actually happened to Laura Manion, and if it was entirely without
her consentbefore answering in the negative Bieglers question Does [your husband] have
any reason to be jealous? she retreats behind inscrutable shades. Biegler puts the films
theme of unknowability to the prosecutions own psychiatrist rather well: Psychiatry is an
effort to probe into the dark, undiscovered world of the mindand in there, the world could
be round, it could be square.
The dark, undiscovered center of the film is the Manions relationship, drawn in dots of
sinister implication, a dangerous game with the rule book missing. She coos, Youre tall,
upon meeting Biegler, just before introducing her husband . . . who isnt. Manny is
pompous, with his ivory cigarette holder; remote; darkly thoughtful; possessive; and quick to
anger. There is some-thing recklessly supermodern about this couplethe discarding of
previous marriages, the disposable, mobile-home lifestyle (and Gazzaras jittery energy is
particularly cold-war hipster, while the dispatched Quill, a macho sportsman present only in
the trophies decorating his bar, is the obsolete Hemingway male).
Preminger further complicates the audiences satisfaction by smothering the films resolution.
The attorneys closing statements, dependable climactic moments of any courtroom drama,
are elided. The Manions, reunited, just disappear from the film, leaving behind only scraps of
trash in an oil drum and a note jilting the lawyer whose efforts have allowed them to stay
feckless and free, taking their hit-and-run marriage to the next army town.
Despite a purely transactional flirtation between Biegler and Mrs. Manionhe testing her
loyalty to her husband, she testing her sexual thrallthere is no romantic involvement for the
male lead in Anatomy of a Murder. If at any point sentiment creeps into Premingers film, its

12 | P a g e
in the tender relationship between Biegler and Parnell Emmett McCarthy (Arthur OConnell),
a sixtysomething lawyer turned town drunk, with whom Biegler passes evening hours
perusing case histories.5
What shall we read this evening, counselor? How bout a little Chief Justice Holmes?
suggests McCarthy on his first visitand it is significant that the one legal mind spoken of is
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.s. In part, this is because it was a name the layman would be
familiar with, but there is something more of Holmes in Anatomy of a Murder: the
cornerstone of his interpretation of law was to remove it from the high-flown language of
universal truths, focusing instead on the practical process by which, upon necessarily
imperfect knowledge, legal decisions were made. The same word often used to brand
Holmess jurisprudence, pragmatism, comes up time and again in discussions of Premingers
worldview. And though motivated by a skepticism that rejected ideology, Holmes was
lionized by liberals for his furtherance of free speech, as in his famous dissent in Abrams v.
United States: The ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas . . . The best
test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the
market.

5
https://the-artifice.com/anatomy-of-a-murder-art-observation/

13 | P a g e
 PLOT ANALYSIS
Otto Premingers Anatomy of a Murder is more than just a film dealing with the court
system: it stands as a realistic and meticulous observation of American life at the time. It was
adapted from John D. Voelkers novel that he had based on a real story in which he was the
defence attorney, and Preminger was careful to depict the affair close to how the real case
had been conducted. The theme of observation is developed in every aspect of the film. The
director aimed to observe and depict the legal system in a scientific and realistic way. In the
story, each character observes the other and all are aware that the way they appear will build
a specific image of them, and will impact the way they are judged in the trial. Finally, the
theme of observation is also developed in the films style through Premingers observing and
neutral camerawork which encourages the audience to examine every detail in the film in
order to construct their own opinion and meaning of the case, like a real jury. 6

An insight into American Justice

Anatomy of a Murder examines the American judicial system almost scientifically. Like a
scientist, Preminger chooses a specific case to observe to understand the strengths and flaws
of American justice. Through observation, spectators are asked to act like scientists they
have to examine evidences and observe people to draw their own conclusions on the case.
Even the films title invites us to observe the trial in a scientific way, anatomy relating to
the biological study of body parts and their interactions. The murder is like a body that has to
be dissected. In the opening credits, the camera zooms in and out on the individual body parts
that appear on screen. This visual metaphor suggests the film performs an autopsy on the
court system, observing it and breaking it down to understand the truth behind the murder and
the inner workings of American justice. Therefore the recurrent theme of scientific
methodology translates Premingers desire to address the film with a methodical mind just
like the characters do with the trial, and to encourage the audience to do the same.
The characters in the film also address law with scientific methods of observation. Attorneys
build their cases by examining their witnesses, questioning their motivations and addressing
inconsistencies in their stories. In his article, Nick Pinkerton 1 states that throughout the film,
Biegler (James Stewart) and Dancer (George C. Scott) quibble to choose the right word to
convey their preferred versions: opinion rather than fact, evening walks rather than prowls.
This importance of having the right word to express the right notion is very similar to

6
https://the-artifice.com/anatomy-of-a-murder-art-observation/

14 | P a g e
scientific reports where each word is weighed against the other to convey results in the most
truthful way. The difference between a casual evening walk and a prowl is crucial to
understand the intentions behind Laura Manions (Lee Remick) walk: one makes her an
innocent victim and the other suggests she was seducing and encouraging her rapist. Hence
meticulous observation and formulation are essential to figure out the motivations of the
victim in the trial. The fact that Preminger took time to show Biegler and Dancer fight over
the exactitude of words illustrates the directors will to depict the legal system fully, without
cutting out minor details. His film is as scrupulous as a judicial procedure and offers a realist
and non-judgemental portrayal of the legal system, a world that Preminger knew, having
observed it for many years.
Anatomy of a Murder presents us with a very detailed picture of the judicial structure, a
picture that Preminger himself had experienced as he earned a law doctorate and his father
was an attorney. The director was very careful to depict the system he knew well in a truthful
and realist way for the audience to get as close as possible to the heart of their legal structure.
Pinkerton writes that the verisimilitude of the film:
can be attributed to Premingers working from the story of a real-life trial; his perennial
devotion to location shooting which took him to the scene of the crime; and his wallflower
mise-en-scne, which observes action at arms length, without imposing interpretation on the
viewer.
Here, Pinkerton points at the realism of the film and stresses how it observes the events at
arms length (objectively and with distance) which gives credibility to Premingers portrayal
and allows spectators to create their own meaning. In his ongoing quest for realism,
Preminger shot the film close to where the real murder had occurred which suggests that he
had the chance to observe the setting and provide a close-to-reality picture of the murder. He
also asked the head counsel for US Army Joseph Welch to be the judge, and members of the
jury panel from the original trial to sit on the set. This adds a layer of reality to the film that
makes its depiction of the court system even more reliable. By choosing location shooting
and actors that knew the legal world inside-out, the director brought authenticity to his film
and worked like an attorney he went to the crime scene, observed the town and used his
legal knowledge to create a film that the audience can trust. It is through the work of
observation and by the attention paid to real-life facts that Preminger managed to document
the legal system authentically.

15 | P a g e
The Importance of Facts
The lawyers try their best to argue their case to the judge. The lawyers try their best to argue
their case to the judge
Facts are presented in the film as key elements to create meaning and understand what
happened on the night of the murder. The act of seeing, observing or witnessing events is
crucial in categorising evidences as facts or as lies we can only believe what we see and
take facts that have been observed and reported for true. When Biegler first meets Lieutenant
Manion (Ben Gazzara), he asks him if he saw Barney Quill raping his wife. The fact that
Manion has not seen the rape makes us question its realness and underlines the importance of
witnessing in the search for truth.
Seeing is even more reliable than memory when Manion describes to the court how he lost
all awareness of what he did after the murder, the only way he realized he had shot Quill was
the vision of the gun: I saw the gun, noticed it as empty. By observing the gun, he
understood that its emptiness meant he had used it on Quill. Therefore observation leads to
the construction of meaning and the understanding of what is fake and what is real. This is
also the role of experts called at the bar in the trial like the photographer or the psychologists
they share their observations and expertise to distinct facts from lies. Their jobs imply
thorough observation, whether it means taking pictures of places or examining someones
behaviour and psychological state. This again demonstrates that meaning can be achieved by
sharing observations and asking experts for their knowledge and distanced comprehension of
the events.7
Biegler is aware of the importance of thorough observation his vision of the law is
procedural and rational, like science, where observation leads to facts therefore constructs
knowledge in the most accurate way. When he questions Laura in his office about her rape,
he asks her if she was wearing a girdle, a detail that does not seem important at first. Im
only concerned with the few facts that might be of help to meto defend your husband.
Here, Biegler appears very cautious about details he needs to visualise the scene as if he
was witnessing it in order to believe it and address it as fact.
His whole procedure is based on observation; for example, he goes to the bar where Barney
Quill worked and takes a close look at the photographs and newspaper clips hanging on the
wall; when he goes behind the bar, he notices a space where a gun could be kept. This
suggests that Quill could be a violent man and shows how Biegler, by examining clues, can

7
https://the-artifice.com/anatomy-of-a-murder-art-observation/

16 | P a g e
understand the true nature of the victim and make assumptions on what has happened from
the evidences that he encounters. He also goes to the library to build the case on solid facts
and make it more reliable. Books hold a status of absolute knowledge, especially in law if it
is written in a book then it must be taken as fact and must be applied as rule. Looking into
books is one way of observing the functioning of the legal system and therefore creating
meaning and parallels between cases. Yet books cannot always relate perfectly to specific
cases and it is through a different kind of observation, the observation of people and their
appearances, that meaning can also be created, as unreliable and subjective as it can be.

Observing the People

Most of the decisions taken in court are based on the observation of people. A jury will feel
more drawn towards someone who appears truthful, coherent and morally strong than
someone who seems corrupt. A jury will therefore create their own opinion about victims and
suspects after having observed them in trial. Biegler is very aware of the influence of
appearances on jury decisions and asks Laura to hide her provocative looks to appear decent
and trustworthy. The Laura that we meet in court is not the same that the Laura who makes
use of her charms on Biegler at the beginning of the film. In court, she trades her sunglasses
for a classic pair. The sunglasses represent her glamorous sense of fashion and make her look
mysterious therefore attractive. They are also a protection if the eyes are the windows to the
soul, then to hide them is a way to prevent people from looking too deep and perceive her
frailty and true unhappiness. In the trial, her other glasses make her look decent and minimise
her sexual appeal, and the clear lenses suggest that she has nothing to hide. This shows how
having the right appearance is key in a trial where people will observe everything you do and
judge you by the way you look and behave.
Laura is treated as an object of contemplation, a sexual commodity that has to be looked at,
and this even in the courtroom. When Biegler asks her to let down her hair and get rid of her
glasses, he literally offers her to the eye of the jury and objectifies her. She is not asked to
speak. They do not ask her if she wants to stand up in front of the court or if she is
uncomfortable about them discussing her body in public. She is treated like an object or a
clue that has to be observed for the purpose of the case. Yet Laura is not uncomfortable or
outraged; on the contrary, she takes pleasure in being the centre of the courts attention. She
is fully aware of her attractive appearance and encourages people to look at her. When
Biegler questions her in his office before the trial, Laura says Biegler looks at her a certain

17 | P a g e
way and he replies that it would be difficult not to look at you. This demonstrates how
Laura is aware of the attention she gets from men and how she purposefully maintains her
good looks to be observed. In this light, we get that she likes to seduce and be seduced which
makes her appear less innocent and makes us understand that people will doubt her story
about the rape as they will judge her on her flirtatious nature.8
Biegler also tries to change Lieutenant Manions behaviour in order to better defend him.
Manion appears to be a tough man with a bad temper who cannot control his anger easily.
When he first meets Biegler, he does not look ready to cooperate. Cigarette in hand,
unbuttoned shirt and a low, rough voice, he appears more like a bad boy type than a
lieutenant and instantly gives the audience the impression of someone who must not be
hassled with. His burst of anger during the trial conveys his violent personality and
undermines Bieglers effort to make the murder look like an involuntary and unconscious
impulse rather than a premeditated act. If he easily loses his temper in court, how would he
have reacted in front of Quill after the rape? Was it really an unconscious act? The
importance of how the Lieutenant looked the night of the murder is crucial in evaluating his
state of mind, whether he was temporarily out of control or determined to shoot Quill.
In the trial, the prosecution asks Al Paquette (Murray Hamilton), who witnessed the murder,
how Manion appeared to him and if he was in complete possession of his faculties to which
Paquette replies yes, that Manion walked slow, kind of deliberate and was cool and cold.
This undermines the argument of a temporary loss of control as Paquette seems to have
observed Manions behaviour in detail and states that he appeared lucid and determined. This
shows again how paying attention to peoples appearances leads to making assumptions and
creating meaning, which slowly unravels the truth. A trial and a film are similar in that way
like the jury, the audience has to observe the characters to understand the circumstances of
the murder, and it is Premingers camera work that invites us to observe and create our
opinion of the case. We are the jury of the film.

An Investigative Camera
Premingers camera work and stylistic techniques place the audience at the heart of the trial.
The observing camera follows the characters and scrutinises the places like a spy which
allows us to see everything in detail. John Orr states that Premingers panning and travelling
shots allow the spectator to enter into the picture, an opening up of cinematic space 2. By

8
https://the-artifice.com/anatomy-of-a-murder-art-observation/

18 | P a g e
not forcing the eye of the viewer and keeping his camerawork reserved of any judgement, he
breaks the space between screen and audience and encourages us to participate in the
investigation of the murder. His style incites us to observe meticulously the scenes and the
protagonists behaviours in order to link clues together, make assumptions and construct our
opinion of the case.
As Susan White writes, Preminger presupposes an intelligence active enough to allow the
spectator to make connections, comparisons and judgements. Preminger presents the
evidence but he leaves the spectator to draw his own conclusions 3. By adopting a neutral
camera style and allowing the witnesses to recite their versions without judging them,
Preminger creates the perfect conditions for viewers to observe how a trial functions and
make their own moral judgement about the way the characters behave and the meaning of
their actions.
In the hands of the impartial director, the camera is like a window into the film. Windows are
a recurrent motif that highlights the theme of observing and being observed. When Biegler
comes home from his fishing trip at the beginning of the film, his friend Paul McCarthy
(Arthur OConnell) pays him a visit and checks if Biegler is here by looking at the window.
The camera stands behind McCarthy and directly looks through the window where we can
see Biegler on the telephone in the background. The camera becomes a sort of character
watching from behind and instantly positions the viewer as a direct observer of the scene, as
if we were there.
Another example of this happens when Biegler is about to interrogate Manion for the first
time. He opens the door to the Sherriffs office and lets Manion in before closing the glass
door. As he closes the door, the camera, which stood completely still before, moves forward
and tracks Biegler through the window. Preminger could have simply cut to the inside of the
room but through this technique, he makes the camera look alive and imitates the steps of
someone watching by the door. Consequently, it feels like we are spying on them
Preminger invites us to observe the scene and prevents us from missing clues that could
impact our understanding. Hence the films camerawork highlights the importance of
observing every detail to create meaning.
Long takes also encourage the audience to be thorough observers as it gives time and space
for spectators to look at the scenes in detail. When Biegler goes to the bar where Quill
worked, he takes time to look at each corner of the room and the long take allows the
audience to follow him in his investigation. It gives us an idea of how much time he pays

19 | P a g e
observing each detail in the bar. After looking at the photos on the wall, he moves away from
us and after a moment, turns back to face us with an inquisitive look on his face, as if he had
found something. Instead of cutting to the object of his interest, the camera tracks his
movements until he reaches the bar and the audience discovers what he was looking at. This
creates suspense and suggests that, like Biegler, we need to take our time to observe and
create meaning from the clues we examine.
The films ratio of 1:85:1 also allows the director to introduce clues in the background that
viewers can easily miss if they do not pay attention. For example, near the end of the film,
Paul asks for the criminal record of one of the witnesses, a prisoner who shared Manions cell
and was called at the bar by the prosecution. With the record in hand, he moves towards the
jury this opens up our visual field and allows us to notice the two policemen talking in the
background. One walks towards the audience and after a brief cut on the witnesss face, we
see the policeman leave with McCarthy. With this small detail, Preminger hints that
something or someone important will be brought up last minute to help Biegler. Widescreen
allows Preminger to play with the mise-en-scne and include details that are essential to build
our understanding of the case this way Preminger can test us on our observational skills.
Therefore we see that even the films style stresses the importance of looking scrupulously at
details in order to interpret their meaning and place them in context. This not only help us to
understand the case but teaches us how a film, whatever its subject matter, should be watched
it teaches us more to be more active spectators.
Anatomy of a Murder focuses on the relation between observation and interpretation in both
its content and its style. It draws parallels and distinctions between facts and assumptions,
knowledge and appearances, and always promotes observation as an essential part of the
understanding process. The film observes the American legal system in a scientific and
procedural way and offers an authentic portrayal of its inner-workings to the audience based
on facts, real-life events and Premingers own experience of the court system. Characters are
driven by their need to observe in order to understand the truth behind the murder case, and
Preminger pushes the audience to be as curious as his characters through his use of a neutral
and detailed film style. The audience enters the space of the film and is encouraged to
observe the trial and create their own meaning of it, like a jury.

20 | P a g e
 CRITICAL RECEPTION
The language used during the film startled Chicago, Illinois Mayor Richard J. Daley, and his
Police Commissioner. As a result, the film was temporarily banned in the heavily Catholic
city. Preminger filed a motion in federal court in Illinois and the mayor's decision was
overturned. The film was allowed to be exhibited after the court determined that the clinical
language during the trial was realistic and appropriate within the film's context. In another
federal lawsuit in Chicago, the daughter of the real-life murder victim from the 1952 case
sued Dell Publishing and Columbia Pictures in July 1960 for libel over accusations that the
book and movie "followed [the actual trial] too closely" and portrayed the two women in an
unflattering light; the suit was dismissed less than a year later in May 1961.
Anatomy of a Murder has been well received by members of the legal and educational
professions. In 1989, the American Bar Association rated this as one of the 12 best trial films
of all time. In addition to its plot and musical score, the article noted: "The film's real
highlight is its ability to demonstrate how a legal defense is developed in a difficult case.
How many trial films would dare spend so much time watching lawyers do what many
lawyers do most (and enjoy least)research?" The film has also been used as a teaching tool
in law schools, as it encompasses (from the defense standpoint) all of the basic stages in the
U.S. criminal justice system from client interview and arraignment through trial. The film
was listed as No. 4 of 25 "Greatest Legal Movies" by the American Bar Association.
The film earned an estimated $5.5 million in rentals in the U.S. and Canada during its first
year of release.
Film critics have noted the moral ambiguity, where a small town lawyer triumphs by guile,
stealth and trickery. The film is frank and direct. Language and sexual themes are explicit, at
variance with the times (and other films) when it was produced. The black and white palette
is seen as a complement to Michigan's harsh Upper Peninsula landscape. The film is "Made
in black-and-white but full of local colour.9
Bosley Crowther, film critic for The New York Times said, "After watching an endless
succession of courtroom melodramas that have more or less transgressed the bounds of
human reason and the rules of advocacy, it is cheering and fascinating to see one that hews
magnificently to a line of dramatic but reasonable behavior and proper procedure in a court.
Such a one is Anatomy of a Murder, which opened at the Criterion and the Plaza yesterday. It
is the best courtroom melodrama this old judge has ever seen... . Outside of the fact that this

9
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomy_of_a_Murder#Critical_reception

21 | P a g e
drama gets a little tiring in spotsin its two hours and forty minutes, most of which is spent
in courtit is well-nigh flawless as a picture of an American court at work, of small-town
American characters and of the average sordidness of crime."
Time felt that it was a well-paced, well-acted, and that the explicit language was warranted
within the film's context.
In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed AFI's 10 Top 10, the best 10 films in 10
"classic" American film genres, after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community.
Anatomy of a Murder was selected as the seventh best film in the courtroom drama genre.
The Internet Movie Database rates it number 23 of 1,177 trial films.
It holds a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 40 reviews with a consensus:
"One of cinema's greatest courtroom dramas, Anatomy of a Murder is tense, thought-
provoking, and brilliantly acted, with great performances from James Stewart and George C.
Scott.10

10
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomy_of_a_Murder#Critical_reception

22 | P a g e
 LEGAL ETHICS INVOLVED IN THE MOVIE

The defense attorney, Paul Biegler (played by Jimmy Stewart) comes across as an earnest,
straightforward, honest attorney who zealously defends the accused.
Yet Biegler comes close to crossing the lawyers ethical line of not suborning perjury when
in the initial consultations with his client, Lt. Frederick Manion (played by Ben Gazzara),
Biegler tells the client the only potential defense is insanity before the lawyer knows all the
facts and then implicitly invites the client to develop a story of insanity.
During the trial, Biegler frequently appears to be an unskilled trial lawyer. He makes
improper objections, such as Now, he [Dancer, one of the prosecutors] cannot do that.
Biegler also frequently and knowingly asks improper questions, and the prosecutions
objections are sustained. His client, Manion, asks Biegler in an aside how the jury can forget
something that the judge has stricken. Biegler says the jury cannot forget, which is precisely
the reason why Biegler asked the improper question.
Another example of Bieglers apparent inept performance as a defense lawyer is his failure to
object to the examination of one witness by both prosecutorsDistrict Attorney Mitch
Lodwick (played by Brooks West) and Assistant Attorney General Claude Dancer (played by
George C. Scott). Such dual teaming is clearly improper as a matter of trial practice. Soon
thereafter, however, Biegler reveals his calculating courtroom manner when he raises that
very objection while slyly arguing to the jury that it is unfair for a simple country lawyer like
himself to face two legal giants with the same witness, and the court sustains Bieglers
objection. Who really is the courtroom giant?
Judge Weaver (Joseph Welch), Paul Biegler, Mitch Lodwik & Claude Dancer Biegler also
reveals his skills as a trial lawyer when in a conference in chambers with Judge Weaver
(played by Joseph Welch), Biegler initially plays dumb when Dancer asks if Biegler is
familiar with a Michigan statute that allows the prosecution to have its psychiatrist examine
an accused who is asserting the insanity defense. Dancer then comes across as a reasonable
attorney when he suggests that Biegler just agree to the adverse examination. But Biegler is
well aware of the statute when he tells the judge that a formal application is required for such
an adverse examination, but that the time for such has passed. Dancer then is forced to
abandon his request. Later during Bieglers cross examination of the prosecutions expert
witness, Biegler forces the adverse expert to admit that he did not examine Manion whereas
Manions expert had and that Manions expert, therefore, had a better basis for his opinion.

23 | P a g e
At the heart of the legal issues in the movie was the definition of insanity as a defense to
criminal liability. At the time of the movie and today, the definition in most states in the U.S.
is the MNaghten rule: a person is insane if at the time of the act, he did not know what he
was doing or did not know that what he was doing was wrong.
In a few states, on the other hand, insanity was defined as someone who could not control
what he was doing because of a mental impairment even though he knew what he was doing
was wrong. This was the so-called irresistible impulse test.
In the movie, Biegler assumes that Michigan follows the MNaghten rule, but on the Saturday
before the start of trail, he and his co-counsel, McCarthy, spend time in the county law library
in the courthouse and find an old Michigan case that approves of the irresistible impulse rule.
This makes for a dramatic scene in the movie. But to conduct legal research on the key issue
in a murder case only a few days before the start of trial really is skirting the edges of legal
malpractice.11
This legal issue becomes important in a conference in chambers with Judge Weaver (Welch)
when the prosecution suggests that Manion change his plea to guilty after his expert
psychiatrist testifies that Manion could have known right from wrong when he killed Quill.
Biegler refuses this proposal while handing the judge the law book containing the Michigan
case. Dancer then backs away from his idea, saying he remembers the case.
Dancers conduct raises another legal ethics problem. As an assistant state attorney general,
he is brought into the case because of his expertise on the insanity issue. As such an expert
and as a member of the Michigan attorney generals office, he has to know that the Michigan
Supreme Court had approved of the irresistible impulse test, as he indicates when he says
he remembers the case. (How could he forget?) Yet Dancer makes the suggestion in
chambers that Manion change his plea because his psychiatrist did not support the application
of the MNaghten test. Perhaps he thought he could trick his supposedly less-sophisticated
adversary, Biegler, with this suggestion. But an attorney has an obligation not to knowingly
misstate the law to the court, and by making the suggestion in chambers that is exactly what
Dancer did. In Dancers defense, he could argue that he was not making a formal motion for
a directed verdict that required a decision by the judge, but this distinction, in the authors
opinion, is insufficient to exempt a prosecutor, who also has obligations to justice.

11
https://dwkcommentaries.com/2012/06/27/legal-ethics-issues-in-the-anatomy-of-a-murder-movie/

24 | P a g e
 CONCLUSION
By 1959, Duke Ellington had appeared in several films with his orchestra, but had never been
commissioned to write a film score. So when Otto Premingers brother Ingo sent Ellington a
script for their latest film project, Anatomy of a Murder, Ellington accepted the assignment
to compose the music. The Preminger brothers were looking for something different for their
films soundtrack and Ellington delivered. The recorded score featured his full big band (and
a small group culled from the band), and it was a jazz score throughout, even though jazz
only played a tangential role in the films storyline. Many jazz critics panned the score at the
time, but now it is considered to be one of Ellingtons greatest works. The Criterion
Collection has issued a new DVD edition of Anatomy with an audio option that makes the
music stand out.
The film was based a true story, and was based on a book by a Michigan Supreme Court
justice, John Voelker (writing under the pen name, Robert Traver). The film was shot entirely
on location in Ishpeming, Michigan, and some of the scenes were shot in the locations where
the real story had taken place. Paul Biegler (James Stewart) is a former District Attorney who
runs a private law firm from his home in Michigans Upper Peninsula. Struggling to stay
focused on his new role as a defense attorney, Biegler takes the case of Lt. Frederick Manion
(Ben Gazzara), who shot and killed Barney Quill, a local bar owner after he heard that Quill
had raped Mrs. Manion (Lee Remick). The Manions have a tense relationship: she is young,
sexy and flirtatious while he has an inner rage that sometimes spills over into violence. We
never really know how much of the Manions story is true (even after the film is over), and
the film shows how Biegler tries to get Manion acquitted by pleading temporary insanity.
Biegler is assisted by former attorney Parnell (Arthur OConnell) and secretary Maida (Eve
Arden) as he prepares to do battle in the courtroom with current DA Mitch Lodwick (Brooks
West) and hotshot lawyer Claude Dancer (George C. Scott). Judge Weaver (Joseph N.
Welch) presides over the courtroom sessions as each attorney displays his methods of trying
to influence the jury. There is a wide range of acting styles: old school Hollywood (Stewart,
Arden, OConnell), Broadway (Scott), Method actors (Gazzara, Remick) and first-timers
(notably Welch, who was a lawyer in real-life and who famously browbeat Sen. Joseph
McCarthy on national television a few years earlier). Despite the differences in styles and
experience, the acting is top-notch across the board, with Stewart, Remick, Gazzara and Scott
providing stunning performances. Otto Preminger keeps the action moving so that the film
seems much shorter than its 161-minute running time might indicate.

25 | P a g e
Ellingtons music is used sparingly in the film, but it is very effective in enhancing the
dramatic action. As Gary Giddins points out in a supplementary interview on the Criterion
DVD, the sound of a wailing alto sax had been used in several films to portray a femme
fatale, but when Ellington used a Johnny Hodges solo for the initial meeting between Stewart
and Remick, it was both a sarcastic comment on the status quo and the ultimate example of
the original concept. Later, when Stewart takes Remick home after finding her at a local bar,
Ellingtons cue Midnight Indigo heightens the loneliness Remicks character feels while
her husband is in jail. While Ellington wrote specific themes for several of the films
characters, he did not always assign the themes to the same instruments. For example, the
theme for Stewarts character is played at various times by Ray Nance, Paul Gonsalves and
Johnny Hodges. Ellington also ghosted for Stewart for the few times when Stewarts
character played piano (on one of those occasions, Stewart shares the piano bench with
Ellington on screen). On the original mono film soundtrack, the music is back in the mix
behind the dialogue, but Criterions disc includes a 5.1 Dolby Surround track that isolates the
dialogue and sound effects to the front center channel, and spreads Ellingtons soundtrack
(originally recorded in stereo) to the other speakers. This mix brings the music to the
forefront and allows the viewer to play closer attention to the score while still following the
films storyline.
In addition to the interview with Giddins, the Criterion edition also includes interviews about
Otto Preminger and Saul Bass, vintage footage of Preminger on William F. Buckleys Firing
Line, newsreel footage and Gjon Mili photos of the films production, the original theatrical
trailer, and excerpts from a work-in-progress documentary about the film. The package is
available as a single disc Blu-Ray and as a double-disc standard DVD. As usual with
Criterion, the picture and audio quality exceeds all previous video releases of the material.
Anatomy of a Murder was a ground-breaking film in its day for its frank language and
subject manner; today it is equally compelling for its brilliant acting and evocative score.
Whether you buy it for the story or the music, eventually youre likely to be enthralled by
both.

26 | P a g e
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books
ANATOMY OF A MURDER written by Robert Traver

Websites
1. http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/anatomy-of-a-murder/
2. http://www.jazzhistoryonline.com/Anatomy_of_a_Murder.html
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomy_of_a_Murder#Critical_reception
4. https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/2155-anatomy-of-a-murder-atomization-of-a-
murder/
5. https://the-artifice.com/anatomy-of-a-murder-art-observation/
6. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052561/synopsis
7. https://dwkcommentaries.com/2012/06/27/legal-ethics-issues-in-the-anatomy-of-a-
murder-movie/

27 | P a g e