Witness for the Prosecution

Encyclopedia : W : WI : WIT : Witness for the Prosecution

Witness for the Prosecution is a play by Agatha Christie, which has been twice made into a film. It tells the story of Sir Wilfred, a master criminal barrister who takes the case of a man on trial for murder. While he expects that the defendant's wife will stand up for him in court, she unexpectedly agrees to appear for the prosecution in a trial while multiple twists and turns occur that will test the lawyer's skill to the limit.

The play itself was based on one of Christie's short stories, first published in 1933 in the collection The Hound of Death.

Film versions

The first film version of the play was made in 1957 and stars Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton, and Elsa Lanchester. It was adapted by Larry Marcus, Harry Kurnitz and the film's Austrian-born director Billy Wilder.

The film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Charles Laughton), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Elsa Lanchester), Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Picture, and Best Sound.

The DVD of this version is currently only available in North America (Region 1) and Australia and New Zealand (Region 4).

In 1982, Witness for the Prosecution was remade for television, starring Ralph Richardson, Deborah Kerr, Beau Bridges, Donald Pleasence, Wendy Hiller, and Diana Rigg. It was adapted by Lawrence B. Marcus and John Gay from the original screenplay and directed by Alan Gibson. The IMDb profile for this version of the film can be found [here]

Another adaptation also exists but not much is known about it other than it was made in 1949 and had a run time of 25 minutes. It appears to have been a television play for the UK.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.