This was so long, which was mostly due to the 30 minutes of set up before the actual trial, which I found rather uninspiring. However the second the courtroom scenes begin, you realize right off the bat that this is a special sort of courtroom film. Jimmy Stewart’s character is so believable as a crafty theatrical lawyer that you forget it’s him despite his trademarked speech patterns. It’s funny seeing him go toe-to-toe against George C. Scott and that other guy while they figure out how to get his client off. There are a lot of things that didn’t age well, but that’s mostly due to it being made in 1959 and the fact that we treat women better than they were treated then. However, it was also ahead of it’s time dealing with rape and violence and psychology at a time I didn’t even know films were talking about them. Funny and smart, this was pretty great.
