Magnificent Movie Cross-Examinations
Ronald H. Clark is one of the authors of the Cross-Examination Handbook. His Cross-Examination blog is a lively, though infrequently updated, foray into the “Art” of cross examining witnesses at trial. It’s a great read.
Last year, Clark surveyed the depiction of cross examination efforts in popular movies. His list of 4-Star Movie Favorites may want to make you grab some popcorn and turn on one of these legal thrillers tonight. Here are a few of Clark’s recommended movies.
Anatomy Of A Murder (Columbia Pictures, 1959, Directed by Otto Preminger, music by Duke Ellington) Movie is based on a best selling novel by Robert Travers. Travers was the pen name of John Volker, prosecutor, fisherman, and a Michigan Supreme Court judge from 1957-1959. Jimmy Stewart wins Best Actor Academy Award. The inspiration for the book was the 1952 Big Bay Michigan Lumberjack Tavern murder trial. The defendant killed the tavern’s proprietor, Mike Chenowith, claiming that Chenowith had raped his wife.
A Place in the Sun (Paramount Pictures, 1951, Directed by George Stevens, who won an Oscar for Best Director) The movie is based on An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser. The book was inspired by the 1906 murder case in which Chester Gillette was convicted of killing Grace Brown, his ex-girl friend who was pregnant and wanted Gillette to marry her. The murder took place in upstate New York at Big Moose Lake where Gillette took Brown out on a boat, hit over the head with a tennis racket, leaving her to drown. In 1908, Gillette was electrocuted.
The Verdict (20th Century Fox, 1982, Directed by Sidney Lumet who also directed Twelve Angry Men) The 1980 book on which The Verdict movie was based was written by Barry Reed, a Massachusetts’s lawyer, with screen play by David Mamet. Barry Reed was a mentor to Jan Schlichtmann, who was the trial lawyer who filed suit against W. R. Grace and Beatrice Co. over the contaminated drinking water deaths in Woburn, Massachusetts. The case was written about in the book A Civil Action and later made into a movie by the same name.
Ok, so they aren’t all legal thrillers. Our all-time favorite comedy, My Cousin Vinny, is also on the list. Read the whole thing.
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