Anatomy of a Murder Notes (for Beyond the Bay)

​Otto Preminger
            -Vienna born, Father, AG for Austrian Empire.  Preminger studied law.  Wealthy family
            -Stage director offered 20th Century Fox contract.  Fought with Zanuck, exiled for 5 years
            -took Nazi roles in film.  Relocated to NY
            -Producer first, then director
            -Took over directing Laura, while Zanuck was enlisted in Army
            -Directed strong of Noir films while on contract (Laura, Fallen Angel, Whirlpool, Where Sidewalk Ends, 13th Letter, Angel Face
            -1950’s:  independent prod/Dir. Would take package to studio for distribution
                        -1st Independent prod:  The Moon is Blue ’52 (Sex comedy he directed on Broadway).  Dispute with Prod Code, released w/o code (45 Star on Wilshire)
                        -Deliberately chose material that would upset censors.  Master of Publicity
            -Preferred long takes & neutral camera position to allow the audience to make their own judgements (“every cut is an interruption.”)
            -Name above the title on independent films
 
Book
 
Film
            -Biographer Foster Hirsch:  “Preminger was the only director who could have made this film.  A lawyer making a movie about a trial.”
            -100% location shoot in UP of Michigan (Ishpaming & Marquette)
 
            Sets/Location
                        -Stewart’s house was Volker’s house (still stands as it did in ’58)
                        -Barney’s Bar:  Thunder Bay Inn Tavern in big Bay, MI
                        -Law Library:  Carnegie Public Library Ishmeming
                        -Maruette County Courthouse
                        -Entire Cast & crew stayed on set for duration of shoot
                                    -nightly gin games at Welch’s
                        -Preminger’s prior film shot on the French Riviera
 
            Cast
                        -“Casting 90% of performance”-Preminger
                        -Lana Turner:  initially offered & accepted part, but bowed out when Preminger wouldn’t allow her to wear designer gowns & apparel
                        -Spencer Tracy & Burl Ives offered Judge part
                        -Richard Widmark Manion part
                        -Kathyn Grant:  Bing Crosby’s wife
                        -Lee Remick:  offered part of Laura when she was 8 months pregnant, based on her performance in A Face in the Crowd.
                        -George C. Scott initially offered bartender part, but insisted on DA
                                    -Seduction of Remick during cross examination
                        -Joseph Welch:  famous for Army-McCarthy hearings “Have you sir, at long last, no sense of decency?”-beginning of end for McCarthy witch hunt
                                    -Preminger didn’t ask him to walk & talk at same time
                                    -Welch agreed to take part if wife could be juror (pd $50,000)
                                    -Use teleprompter
                        -Brooks West (DA). Eve Arden’s husband
 
            Characterizations
                        -Biegler takes case as abstract opp ro exercise various points of law.  Not an idealist, like earlier Stewart characters.  Biegler also a showman who puts on & removes mask of performance.
                                    -Stewart’s Last Academy Award nominated performance
                                    -Stewart’s string of morally ambivilant characters (Naked Spur & Vertigo)
                        -No character is entirely honest except judge.
-Remick & Gazzara actor studio veterans.  Developed relationship on their own
Manion
            -Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart award winner
 
            Structure
                        -Trail shot in sequence & before the rest of film
-No closing arguments
                        -Inclusion of Oliver Wendal Holmes:  pragmatic juror, aligned with Preminger’s worldviews.  Free Speech proponent
 
            Censorship
                        -Trouble words used:  slut, bra, panties, rape, climax, sperm, intercourse
                        -“I’m gonna rape you”
-Allowed substitution of “penetration” for “violation”
-Initially banned in Chicago
-South Africa would not play movie unless scene with Stewart & Ellington was removed.  Preminger refused
 
            Score
                        -Duke Elington, along with Billy Strayhorn on set for entire shoot
                        -Used score to underscore, not influence
                        -1 of only 5 films to win Grammy, but not be nom for Best Score (ID4, Crimson Tide, Glory, Dark Knight
 
Post Production
                        -Cut, scored & previewed within 2 months of shooting’s end
                        -Named Michigan Product of the Year for 1959
                        -Saul Bass title sequence
 
            Awards/Reception
                        -$4 BO in US & $1 in foreign
                        -#7 Best courtroom film via AFI
                        -Nominated for Best Pic, but not Best Director
 
            Random Notes
            -Stewart’s father famously took out ad in newspaper telling people not to see film
-1962 Showing in Russia:  Sexual issues not a problem, but audience couldn’t understand why trial took place.  He should have been hanged for murder.  Flawed system
            -Preminger sued Columbia in 1965 when they sold film for TV & allowed 13 commercial breaks & 36 commercials.  He lost.  Judge said final cut only applied to theatrical release
            -Golden Age of Courtroom Dramas:  12 Angry Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, Witness for the Presecution