Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger, 1959)

I slated Seconds (John Frankenheimer, 1966) and Reflections in a Golden Eye (John Huston, 1967) in a genre I called Feel That New Hollywood Train Comin'. But you can sense Preminger barreling toward it with this 1959 classic. There's an exciting disconnect watching old-guard actors like James Stewart (as "humble" country attorney Biegler, a virtuosic performance that's quite possibly his greatest ever) and Eve Arden exist in a world where words like "rape" and even "bitch" (!) are uttered (not to mention going toe-to-toe with such Methody new-guard actors as Ben Gazzara, Lee Remick [in a role abandoned by Lana Turner!], and George C. Scott). 

Not that 1959 (or any era) had the corner on modernity. Anatomy of a Murder recalls prior milestones in sophistication, exhibiting a bit of the Lubitsch touch in its ending. Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932) comes to a close, for instance, when Mariette (Kay Francis) allows Gaston (Herbert Marshall) and Lily (Miriam Hopkins) to steal ₣100,000 and a string of pearls from her. Her tone is bittersweet rather than enraged or screaming for vengeance. She may be in a funk for a day or so. But soon, she'll struggle to remember Gaston's name. Similarly, Biegler and his colleague McCarthy [sic] (Arthur O'Connell) shrug off the fact that Manion (Gazzara) has left town without paying them, a mindset perhaps absorbed from Biegler's secretary Maida (Arden) who never seems overly concerned that she hasn't received a paycheck in a while. Biegler isn't even bittersweet here. He's probably just eager to get back out on the lake to fish. Both endings still startle and even confuse today for how they flout expectations of rage and depression.

And even at that, I can think of at least six or seven Preminger films that cut it (Angel Face, Fallen Angel, The Human Factor, Bunny Lake is Missing, Bonjour Tristesse, maybe Daisy Kenyon if I can sift out my Joan Crawford idolatry, etc.) and many more that are its equal. After Sirk, he's my favorite classical Hollywood director.
Grade: A