Anatomy of a Murder Notes
- Source Material
i.Associate Supreme Court 56-60
1.3 Years, 99 opinions
2.UM Law
3.7 time county prosecutor, Democrat
ii.Writing
1.Used pseudonym to avoid scrutiny while prosecutor (11 books)
iii.Mother teacher, dad saloon owner
iv.Defended Peterson in actual trial
v.Personal
1.Drink of choice: Cabin Still bourbon, kept bottle under desk
2.Learned to love fishing at early age
3.Friend Charles Kuralt said of Voelker, “..about the nearest thing to a great man I’ve ever known. One of the most graceful writers on the American literary scene.”
4.Hated the Mackinaw Bridge and jokingly threatened to blow it up, for the good of the UP.
b.Actual Crime-July 31st, 1952. Trial opened: 9/15/52
i.1952 “Big Bay Lumberjack Tavern killing”
1.Mike Chenoweth, victim/owner
a.Town playboy
b.Believed to have raped/assaulted other women
c.Former state trooper
2.Coleman Peterson, accused
a.Lietenant, recent Korean war vet
b.Walked in, didn’t speak & started shooting
c.Leaned over bar and emptied gun in circle pattern
ii.Trial
1.Dr. Thomas Pelty, psychiatrist, testified to “irresistible impulse
a.Not allowed in certain states
2.Post-assualt test didn’t determine rape occured
3.Peterson did leave town & stiffed Volker of attorney’s fees
a.Divorced 6 months later
b.Eventually gave Volker murder weapon & dress sword
c.Died in ’97 of heart failure
c.Novel
i.1956 Bestseller (300,000 copies in initial run
ii.4 million since first publication
iii.3 days after accepted for publication he was appointed to MI Supreme Court
iv.66 weeks atop NYT bestsellers list
- Preminger
i.Upbringing/Family
1.Prominent Viennese family. Father prosecutor
2.Otto studied law in Vienna
3.Work for Max Reinhart’s theatre
ii.Fox contract and shunning: challenged Zanuck
1.“Preminger was likely to go bankrupt running a kids softball team” -Zanuck
iii.Acting Career
1.Nazi parts (Stalig 17)
iv.3 Oscar Nomination (Anatomy, Laura, The Cardinal)
b.Director
i.40’s Noir
1.Laura, Fallen Angel, Whirlpool, Where the Sidewalk Ends, 13th Letter, Angel Face
ii.Non-Code Approved titles (independently produced & profitable
1.The Moon is Blue ‘53
2.Man with the Golden Arm ‘55
iii.50’s Social Action
1.Carman Jones, Man w/the Gold Arm, Porgy & Bess, Exodus, Bonjour Trieste
a.Difficult shooting Porgy, lost film
iv.Beyond
1.The Cardinal, Advise & Cosnet, In Harm’s Way
v.Style: Chill cynicism from Noir never left his films
1.Neutral perspective
2.Long 2 shots, fluid camera movement
- Stewart
- Script (Wendell Mayes)
ii.Characters
1.Unsympathetic characters on both sides of the law
a.Accused
b.Wife
c.Victim
d.Lawyer’s on both sides
iii.Points of interest
1.The process vs. the outcome
2.The Act vs. the motivation (Rape vs. murder)
3.Drama of the Courtroom
a.The Mechanics of Language
b.Words Matter
i.“high” vs “tight”
c.“Every word is loaded with history & when we choose a word, you choose it’s history as well.”
iv.Strategy
1.Pilant’s “gotcha testimony”: Why would she be sorting laundry day after father died? If she did it days later, time for Laura to plant them
2.Beigler suborns purgery is leading Mannie towards insanity plea?
a.No balancing speech about telling the truth
- Pre-Production
i.Turner fired due to wardrobe dispute (Jean Louis vs Hope Bryce)
ii.Ben Gazzara stage actor
iii.George C. Scott auditioned for bartender, but asked for Dancer & Preminger granted
1.Raging alcoholic, along with wife Colleen Dewhurst
iv.Lee Remick
1.Originally offered role, based on performance in A Face in the Crowd
2.Preminger gave her script, then told her 2 days later Turner (39) was signed
v.Joseph N. Welch (Judge)
1.McCarthy/Army Hearings
a.One of first live nationwide broadcasts
b.Boston attorney
c.Famous line
i.“Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?
ii.Context: McCarthy came after junior member of Welch’s team who had been a member of National Lawyers Guild that McCarthy deemed communist front
iii.Entire quote: “Let us not assassinate the character of the young lad any further, Senator. You have done enough. Have you sense of decency, sir?”
vi.Kathyn Grant (Mrs. Bing Crosby)-sing song vice drove Prem nuts
1.She got over intimidation by imagining him w/bad breath
2.3 months pregnant “good, it will make your boobs bigger”
vii.Eve Arden, Arthur O’Connell, Brooks West, Orson Bean, Murray Hamilton
- Production
i.Upper Pennisula provided both look
ii.150 cast & crew arrival by private train greeted by half of Marquette & broadcast live on Ed Sullivan’s show (Preminger’s idea) -35 degrees in mid-March
iii.Cast & crew stayed together in local hotel-Family atmosphere
1.Spouses & children (Remmick’s baby) welcome
2.Welch’s wife a jury member
3.Eve Arden’s husband Prosecutor
4.Ellington played in dining room in evenings
5.Voelker, Welch & Preminger ate together
b.Shooting
i.Shot interiors first to let it warm up outside
ii.Trial shot in chronological order
iii.Netted $800,000 to local economies of Marquette & Big Bay
1.150 local extras made $10 per day (1,500 applied)
2.Local businessman, Robert Brebner, played victim
iv.Style
1.Fly on the wall, observational style
2.Viewer left to decide if justice has been served.
3.Preminger preferred long 2 shots and camera movement to editing
c.Crew
i.Hope Bryce (costumes) “she could fix anything but the crack of dawn or a broken heart.” called Aphrodite on set-Preminger married her after shoot
ii.Ellington won 3 Grammys for the score.
1.Ellington stayed on set for all 8 weeks. Preminger wanted to feel to music live while they were shooting.
- Censorship
i.The Moon is Blue ‘53
1.Use of ‘virgin’
ii.The Man with the Golden Arm ‘55
1.Heroin addiction and aftermath
b.Chicago Board
c.Police chief challenged “contraceptive” because he didn’t want 18 yr old daughter to hear it
i.Judge suggested she not only hear it, but study it
d.Words
i.Intercourse, contraceptive, spermatogenesis, sexual climax, panties
- Premiere
b.Ishpeming & Marquette (Nordic) 6/29/59 screenings
c.World Premiere United Artists Theatre Detroit, 7/1/59
- Reception
b.Oscar Nominations: 7
i.Best Picture, Stewart, O’Connell, Scott, Editing, cinematography, adapted screenplay (BEN-HUR)
c.Box Office: $5mill ($60mill). Preminger received $400,000
d.Anatomy of a Murder was named Michigan’s Product of the Year for 1958
- Aftermath
i.City wanted to dispose after
ii.Farmer saved in barn until 1984 (reinstalled)
iii.Years diminished prints, removed
iv.Fundraising to recast and replace
b.Lawsuit brought by Peterson’s widow and illegitimate daughter
i.Tossed by judge “anyone who know you wouldn’t confuse you with characters in book or movie”
c.1962 Soviet screening
i.Were not phased by sexual content or language
ii.Could not understand how he was acquitted “obviously a bad man who had not killed under irresistible impulse. Should have been hanged.”
iii.Could not comprehend “innocent until proven guilty.”
- Trail Movies/Courtroom Drama
b.#4 Legal movie by American Bar Association
c.To Kill a Mockingbird, 12 Angry Men, Kramer v Kramer, The Verdict, A Few Good Men, Witness for the Prosecution, Anatomy of a Murder, In Cold Blood, A Cry in the Dark, Judgement at Nuremberg
