This is a superior court-room drama that wears its age well, greatly aided by the worldly cynicism permeating every level of the proceedings.James Stewart plays a subtle variation on his standard Voice of Decency as a lawyer defending an army officer attempting to evade a murder charge following his wife's rape by the victim. Stewart's golden boy screen persona was already so dyed-in-the-wool by this stage that it comes as a creeping feeling of discomfort to realise that here he's really only out for sticking it to George C. Scott's big-city prosecution counterpart rather than having any interest in justice being done. The script, too, treats the potentially grim topic with flippant insouciance and without ever encroaching on melodrama, far more concerned with milking the interplay amongst an array of equally witty characters for alll the laughs it can squeeze out. It's actually very funny in a gallows-type way and well served by a fine cast, rounded off by Ben Gazzara as the calculating accused and a young Lee Remick as his coquettish wife.
8/10
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