Let's say that Bernie Gribble or whatever his name is did rape Lee Remick - her flirting and clothing is no excuse - we're in The Accused territory, early on - and that must have happened for any of it to make sense, then Ben Gazzara (brilliant) literally does go over to his bar and execute him in cold blood. It's quite straightforward. And the 'dissociative reasoning' defence is just bullshit.
So why does lawyer James Stewart defend him? Though the film runs 2 hours 40, we don't find out.
Stewart makes a big show of it when Scott is blocking his view of the witness, but every time either of them gets really close to the witness in the box they're... blocking the other's view.
A Columbia release. Oscar nominated for film, Stewart, Arthur O'Connell, George C Scott, writer Wendell Mayes, cinematographer Sam Leavitt (in hard black and white tones) and editor Louis Loeffler, who edited seventeen (most) of Preminger's pictures from Margin for Error (1943) on - Laura was a year later, Bonjour Tristesse being one exception. Won none of them. (Ben Hur was the slam dunk that year.)
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