There's a lot of good and bad in the film. The good is a tight script; and a a bravura performance from Laughton as the lawyer (okay, barrister) with health problems; Laughton's real life wife, Elsa Lanchester, as his nurse, is delightful; Tyrone Power, as the accused, is nicely enigmatic and ambiguous; Marlene Dietrich, as Power's neglected war bride wife brings her own special brand of charisma to her role; while John Williams, Una O'Connor, Henry Daniell and Ian Wolfe are all splendid in supporting parts. As to the bad, the movie is dull looking, resembling an episode of a television series of its time. It lacks the fine tuning of the best of Hitchcock, or for that matter Billy Wilder. The pacing could be better. While I wouldn't call the movie slow moving it never at any point really catches fire. It feels rather chilly throughout. There's not much in the art direction or the photography to draw the viewer in. Wilder serves his material and doesn't bring much of himself to the party.
What keeps the thing humming is its plot, which is a good one. Ty Power uses his charm skillfully in his early scenes, yet seems to lose focus later on. Laughton brings gravitas to his role but somehow fails to bring the much needed moral authority his character presumably possesses, which is absent from the actor's performance. Too often Laughton just seems to be indulging himself, which is fun to watch but not really right for his character. Dietrich seems to be working extra hard and actually convinces me that she is or could be Power's wife.
Overall, Witness For the Prosecution feels like a "leisure movie" for its director. Wilder wasn't exactly slumming when he made it, but he wasn't running on six cylinders, either. It plays well enough, keeps the viewer's attention, yet lacks a certain heart, fire, intensity, something that might have elevated it to the level of a classic. It's definitely worth a peek if one likes murder mysteries, but it's not in the same league as Hitchcock's Dial M For Murder, which is a far more engaging movie. There's no flamboyance and little style to Witness. As a footnote it's worth mentioning that this was Tyrone Power's last or nearly last movie. He shows himself to good advantage, as it mustn't have been easy to for this middle-aged former matinée idol to have played a murder suspect named Leonard Vole. Power was clearly moving in a character star direction, and doing well at it. Had he lived longer and continued in the same vein he might have given Dirk Bogarde a run for his money over the next decade.
