I just got done watching this movie on the Odyssey Channel and I just had to write about it. It was fabulous!
The Plot.
Walter Matthau plays a small-town Colorado lawyer in the 1940s. Ok, so being a lawyer enthralled with the war era, I am already intrigued! Matthau is the local lawyer whose son is fighting world war II and whose daughter in law and granddaughter are living with him while his son is overseas.

Outside of town is a German POW camp where Americans hold German prisoners of war. No one really pays attention to the camp until a friend of Matthau's, the local doctor, is murdered at the camp. The night of his murder, Matthau had met up with the doctor who was drunk and rambling about "all the poor dead boys" at the camp. Matthau has no idea what he is talking about. (As an aside, this is where one of my favorite parts of the movie come in. The doctor quotes the "parting is such sweet sorrow" piece from Romeo and Juliet and then says to Matthau "I didn't write that, you know. William Shakespeare did. Mr. Shakespeare to you. I call him Sparky." It was hilarious- I guess you have to see it.) Naturally, a German POW is blamed for the doctor's murder.

So, into town comes a federal judge (played magnificently by Harry Morgan) and a federal prosecutor. The judge decides to appoint Matthau to defend this German in court. Matthau needless to say does not want to, but is forced to or he will be held in contempt of court by Morgan.

It comes out that there are 3 Americans being held in Germany that are going to go on trial, so the object is to hold a "fair" trial for this German in the hopes that the Germans will reciprocate and give our boys a fair trial. However, Harry Morgan is determined to see the German hanged.

The first half of the movie is a little slow. We hear letters from Matthau's son, and a little bit of the trial which is uneventful. Then, a note that the doctor wrote on the day of his death surfaces and hints that there is more going on in the camp than we know and that the doctor has a guilty conscience on his hands and is about to tell all when he is murdered.

Things start coming out about the strange deaths of prisoners in the camp- deaths that were labeled as natural but were anything but. The accused German starts telling Matthau about the "Lugar Gestapo". This is a group of prisoners that internally police their fellow Germans and will murder prisoners if they say anything bad about Hitler. The Major running the camp allows this group to exist in order to help keep order in the camp.

I am not going to tell you who killed the doctor or why- you'll have to watch the end of this movie to find out!

Why I loved this film!
I loved this movie on several different levels. One is the legal aspect of it, of course. There are several twists and turns that are rather unexpected in this movie. It kept me on the edge of my seat and paying very close attention. If a movie can do that for me, I have to appreciate it as I usually have a very short attention span when movies are on TV. The commercials were killing me on this one! I couldn't wait to get back to the film.

There are also several other aspects on a more personal level that I loved about this movie-especially Walter Matthau's grappling with defending a German while his son is in the war, and about what to do when it appears his client is innocent. Should he start digging around or just let the German hang? He and his family are also turned into the town pariahs. Although the judge forced him to take the case, he and his family take a lot of heat and abuse from the other townfolk for "defending" a Nazi. This also weighs in on Matthau's moral dilemna of redeeming himself in the eyes of his friends and the town by putting up a paltry defense and letting the German hang.

Another thing I really liked about this film was its portrayal of women. Matthau's daughter-in-law is shown to be very intelligent and she does a lot of the legal work in piecing things together and finding out what is going on, even though she has no formal education. I thought that was an interesting take on the 1940s, as most women in timepieces such as this are often portrayed as simple housewives.

The acting is great in this film! Matthau was wonderful, as usual, and Harry Morgan also gave a very strong performance as the judge. The movie also featured William Schallert, a great character actor I know principally as Patty Duke's dad from the Patty Duke Show, although he's been in about everything!

This movie was very good, but there were a few holes. I thought more attention could be played towards some of the more emotional points in this movie. Bad things happen, and they don't have the effect on this family as I thought they would.

However, overall this piece is well acted, and has a smart script. It kept me on my seat and paying close attention. I was really surprised at the quality of this film seeing as it was made for television. I would compare this movie to "A Few Good Men". It's a little bit slower than that movie, but very interesting and smart.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older