Stewart plays Paul Biegler, a former District Attorney from a sleepy Michigan town. After losing his position, Paul is resigned to spending most of his days fishing, and his nights discussing the law with the town drunk (Arthur O’Connell). Desperately broke, he reluctantly accepts the case of one Lt. Manion (a very young Ben Gazzara), a Veteran accused of a murder he openly admits he committed. After Manion’s wife Laura (Lee Remick) is raped by the owner of the town inn, Manion calmly loaded his pistol, went to the inn, and shot him five times. Manion doesn’t dispute any of it, he even turned himself into the police after the shooting. Can Paul get him off?

Though the trial that makes up the second half of the film is over Manion’s innocence, it includes a great deal of discussion of the details of his wife’s rape. Preminger is clearly delighted to be airing these issues on the screen, and he goes out of his way to have fun with the fact that plenty of people, on the screen and in the audience, were uncomfortable saying some of these words in 1958. When the issue of how to describe Mrs. Manion’s undergarments is placed before the court, Judge Weaver (Joseph N. Welch) brings the lawyers to the bench and asks how they wish to proceed. Are they really going to call these things “panties?” “I’ve never heard my wife call them anything else,” the current D.A. says. George C. Scott, playing an assistant prosecutor offers, “When I was overseas in the war...I learned a French word. I’m afraid it might be slightly suggestive.” The men are placed on screen in a lineup that calls to mind the Marx Brothers in the middle of a murder trial that resulted from a rape! No other option in sight, panties is deemed an acceptable word.

There is something to be said for the tactics used in movies like ANATOMY OF A MURDER, made back when you simply couldn’t come out and talk about the details of a rape. Subtlety and implication are great tools of the screenwriter - suggesting what happened in a way that causes the audience to think is potentially more engaging than just telling them in detail. There’s even something a bit sexy about it. And of course, when you do finally come out and really hit the audience over the head - like the way one witness calls someone a “bitch” in one pivotal scene late in the film - you can really shock people with the bait and switch. When was the last time you were shocked by the word bitch when it wasn’t coming out of the mouth of a child or clergyman? My jaw was on the floor when I heard it in ANATOMY OF A MURDER.

As a warning, I will note that ANATOMY is over two and a half hours long, and for audiences now used to a court case done from start to finish in the second half of a Law & Order episode, it may be a bit jarring to spend so much time in a courtroom. But all that screentime gives you the feeling of seeing the entire case, down to the last witness, objection, and rebuttal so that the case becomes more fluid and complete. Beyond being a sexy picture, ANATOMY is one that is consummately made in all areas, from acting, to writing, to the titles by Saul Bass. There are better films, more important ones, but few that are so flawlessly executed.