Just answer the questions, Mr. Paquette. The attorneys will provide the wisecracks.
Watched Otto Preminger's 1959 film Anatomy of a Murder tonight and, while the film is on the long side, I will attempt to be brief. James Stewart stars as small-town lawyer Paul Biegler, who defends hotheaded army lieutenant Ben Gazzara on a murder charge after he kills the man who raped his wife, the flirty Lee Remick. George C. Scott co-stars as the assistant state attorney general brought in by the prosecution, with a young Orson Bean as the army psychiatrist who examines Gazzara and declares him temporarily insane at the time of the murder, and Murray Hamilton as the uncooperative bartender at the club where Remick was the night of the rape, which is never substantiated one way or the other. (As with a lot of things in the case, we hear arguments for both sides and get to make up our own minds, just like the jury does.)
As a depiction of what goes on in a jury trial -- especially one with such sensational aspects as rape, murder and panties -- Anatomy has been highly influential. Stewart even pulls out the "humble country lawyer" routine which I've seen invoked a number of times since. The film takes its sweet time getting to the trial itself, with nearly an hour elapsing between Stewart arriving home from his fishing trip and the first scene at the court. Probably just as well since there are only so many ways you can shoot a cross examination. At any rate, the most distinctive things about the film are Saul Bass's inimitable opening titles and Duke Ellington's wonderful jazz score. Bass designed the titles for a number of Preminger films, starting with 1954's Carmen Jones, but this was Ellington's first score. Sadly, he didn't do too many.