Selected by the Music Branch. 

This smart, morally ambiguous courtroom drama was based on the bestseller by Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D. Voelker (writing as Robert Traver), inspired by a groundbreaking 1952 case in which he represented a defendant accused of murdering a man who allegedly assaulted his wife. Director Otto Preminger made the unexpected choice of hiring the legendary Duke Ellington to provide the film’s droll, jazzy score, and Ellington also performs onscreen in one scene. The film earned Academy Award–nominations for Best Picture; the performances of James Stewart, Arthur O’Connell, and George C. Scott; Sam Leavitt’s black-and-white cinematography; Louis R. Loeffler’s film editing; and Wendell Mayes’s adapted screenplay. 

Academy Museum film programming is generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation.