Witness for the Prosecution

Vole, an English gentleman, is accused of murdering a rich widow.

The will of the murdered woman, drawn up a few days before his death, appoints the alleged murderer as heir to a considerable part of his wealth.

Vole’s situation is made even more difficult by the ambiguous attitude of his wife Christine, a German woman he married during the second world war.

Vole’s case is of great interest to a famous lawyer, Sir Wilfred Roberts, who, convinced of the innocence of the defendant, despite his precarious health conditions, takes up the defence.

During the trial, Sir Roberts manages to invalidate all charges, but the deposition of Christine, called to testify by the prosecution, takes away all validity to the alibi produced by Vole.

Sir Roberts is seriously embarrassed. Before the final hearing, a mysterious woman sells him some letters from Christine; according to the letters, it is clear that she has made a trap against her husband.

The surprises, however, are not over…

Below you find the trailer of the movie; then we will go through the crucial points of the film.

The crucial points of the movie

I’m not asking you to watch this movie because of the skill of the lawyers, who seem inclined to believe any nonsense they are told.

Attention goes all to the dialogues, in which you can admire questions like clarification, comprehension check and paraphrasing expressed with a superior technique.

A genuine training course on closed questions!

Cast

Henry Daniell, Marlene Dietrich, Elsa Lanchester, Charles Laughton, Una O’Connor, Tyrone Power, Ian Wolfe, Torin Thatcher, Norma Varden, Philip Tonge