Doug’s Cinematic Firsties is a recurring series wherein Douglas Laman (A.K.A. NerdInTheBasement) will review a well-known classic motion picture that he’s never seen before.

I absolutely love the experience of stumbling onto movies I’ve never heard of before. It’s a ritual I’ve been enamored with ever since I was a kid dragging my fingers across heretofore unknown VHS tapes on the shelves of the local Blockbuster. The mind reeled at what stories could be inside those video cassette boxes. Nowadays, that sensation has been translated into our living rooms as we browse streaming services and stumble onto movies we’ve never heard of before. So it was that browsing the Criterion Channel this past Thursday evening that I saw that this platform had added a film called Anatomy of a Murder to their library of titles. Having never heard of this film before but seeing that Jimmy Stewart & Otto Preminger were involved in the production, I immediately took to watching it

It’s fun to stumble onto unknown movies. It’s even more fun to stumble onto unknown movies that turn out to be masterpieces.

Anatomy of a Murder is a courtroom drama following former Michigan district attorney Paul Biegler (Jimmy Stewart). This law-obsessed man is immensely sad about no longer occupying the position of district attorney and proceeds to drown his sorrows in prolonged fishing trips. However, between catching cod, he also works as a lawyer. His newest case ends up being a hotly controversial one fixated on Lt. Frederick Manion (Ben Gazzara) being arrested for the murder of Barney Quill. Manion murdered Quill after he found out that Quill raped his wife, Laura Manion (Lee Remick). Biegler proceeds to take on the gruesome case in the role of conjuring up some kind of defense for Manion.

As Biegler begins to talk to Manion about their options for the subsequent trial, screenwriter Wendell Mayes has this lawyer lay out the four separate ways he can try and justify murder in a court of law. This conversation see’s Biegler outline legal proceedings, which should be about as interesting as watching somebody read aloud the phonebook. But Mayes laces this explanation with such vivid verbiage that keeps you absorbed. To boot, there’s something extra riveting about watching Biegler exude such knowledge about this subject matter. He may have become voluntarily isolated and fishing-obsessed in recent years but there’s a reason Biegler became a district attorney in the first place. This guy actually knows his way around the law.

Watching Biegler in this early sequence and all throughout the movie has a quality similar to that one scene in Toy Story 2 where a cleaner polishes up a damaged Woody. There’s something so quietly electrifying about watching a pro be a master at their craft. The aforementioned vividly-realized dialogue in Mayes screenplay also keeps the courtroom proceedings fully engrossing. This is particularly true of any line of dialogue delivered by the judge overseeing the case, Judge Weaver. This character is played by Joseph N. Welsh in an endlessly amusing performance. Welsh’s acting perfectly realizes Weaver’s specific experienced but warm-hearted nature. Combing Welsh’s performance with the dialogue Mayes has penned (“Let’s leave the wisecracks to the lawyers”) and you get a character that’s guilty…of being outstandingly entertaining!

Also keeping the movie ceaselessly enjoyable is Wendell Mayes’ way of employing a sense of unpredictability throughout the story. Courtroom dramas can sometimes become consumed by the cliches of the genre, but here, I was never quite sure where Anatomy of a Murder was going next. Was the plot going to shift its focus onto Lt. Frederick Manion being an abusive husband? Would there be some larger con at play that Biegler got himself inadvertently ensnared in? And what exactly is going on with Biegler’s mysteriously absent partner Parnell McCarthy (Arthur O’Connell)? There is all kinds of uncertain variables dangling in the air that lend an extra air of uncertainty to the proceedings. To boot, what resolutions do emerge to these mysteries prove to be just as satisfying as the sense of the unknown.

This is especially true in regard to the resolution of a plotline revolving around supporting character Mary Pilant (Kathryn Grant). This conclusion emerges when she’s on the witness stand and being intensely questioned by opposing lawyer Claude Dancer (George C. Scott). It’s a scene executed for maximum entertainment and breathless tension by everyone involved. The sense of escalation in this sequence is utterly harrowing as Dancer’s questions become more and more severe all while Pilant tries to conceal that she’s actually the daughter of Barney Quill. It’s already such a masterfully nail-biter scene, but then comes that perfectly-realized final beat. In this beat, Pilant ultimately reveals that Quill is her father. In response, Dance shrivels back like he’s Ralph Wiggum getting his heart broken on television.

It’s a great piece of acting by George C. Scott that vividly captures the monumental nature of this moment as well as caps off a remarkable sequence on a high note. That’s far from the only stand-out scene in Anatomy of a Murder but it’s one that immediately leaps to my mind on what sets this feature in a class of its own among courtroom dramas and even just movies in general. Also helping to set Murder stand out from the pack is the use of an original score by Duke Ellington. It’s never a bad idea for movies to employ music by this jazz legend. However, in the specific case of Anatomy of a Murder, it’s a great way for the film to reflect the personality of its protagonist. Paul Biegler is a serious fan of jazz, to the point that he hangs out with a local pianist named Pie-Eye played by Ellington himself!

Upon learning that Biegler is a jazz aficionado, Laura Manion remarks that it’s not the kind of music you’d expect a lawyer to listen to. Similarly, jazz music score isn’t the kind of orchestral accompaniment you expect to find in a courtroom drama. Not only does Anatomy of a Murder use its score to emphasize the interests of its protagonist, it also uses Ellington’s score to establish its own unique identity as a motion picture. A sense of uniqueness also permeates through Jimmy Stewarts’ wonderful lead performance (despite his fame for squeaky-clean roles in the 1940s, this guy could really nail morally complex roles like Paul Biegler) and similarly high-quality direction from Otto Preminger. On top of all that, Anatomy of a Murder also has the courtesy to deliver a cute doggie that can carry a tiny flashlight. As if I couldn’t adore this movie even more!

Discovering previously unknown movies is always a treat. But it’s an especially amazing experience when the previously unknown movie turns out to be as great as Anatomy of a Murder!