"Psycho," "Anatomy of a Murder" and "The Rainmaker"(1997)

Well, here's a mood piece...

I watched two of my favorite courtroom dramas over the course of a week, just as they popped up:

Otto Preminger's "Anatomy of a Murder"(1959) is famous for pushing the same envelope that Psycho did one year later -- but with both more going on(detailed sexual testimony in the trial) and less going on(no screams) than Psycho had. Based on a bestseller by a Michigan attorney, Anatomy of a Murder, is, alas, a more sophisticated and detailed dramatic work than Psycho, with a lot of technical jargon and a sense of real people that Psycho doesn't really have(Joe Stefano's script is great, but the lines are sometimes arch one liners and Hitchcock isn't one for much technical detail.)

"Psycho" is a bigger deal than "Anatomy of a Murder" as a matter of blockbuster audience involvement("of all ages"), but together the two films share an era(that 50's/60's cusp I love), a look(black and white circa 1959/1960) and a certain bleakness against which the sexual content is almost a "desperate release valve" for desperate people.

In addition to its landmark sexual content(spoken of, not seen), Anatomy of a Murder offers the audience something disquieting about a trial movie: we never really know if the defendant is really guilty or not(he might be either), or if his wife was raped, or a willing participant in a sexual affair. Preminger tells us: "Guess what -- in real life, you don't always get to find out, either." Three years later, with the equally great Advise and Consent, Preminger took his "all sides equal" approach to DC politics and gave us a movie that just makes me sad now, given how things have deteriorated.

But I digress. OK, so I enjoyed the law, the frankness and the intelligence of Anatomy of a Murder -- linked it(rightfully so) to Psycho as a product of the same time and place and then, a few days later, watched the 1997 legal drama "The Rainmaker" and took stock.

The 1997 "Rainmaker"(not to be confused with the 50's drama with Lancaster and Kate Hepburn) is a legal drama from one of those John Grisham legal thrillers that were so popular in the 90's, so much so that the first two books made into movies had one superstar each in the leads: Tom Cruise in The Firm and Julia Roberts in The Pelican Brief.

By 1997, the Grishams were getting too familiar, and "The Rainmaker" could only land newly minted young star Matt Damon as the lead. But he was good, and he had two other things on his side: Francis Coppola as the director("for hire," yes, but on material that shared with, yes, The Godfather, a sense of multi-character interaction and sweep) and a fine supporting cast of familiar faces, some of them sorta stars:

Danny DeVito(in the same year as his noxious bad guy in LA Confidential) as the scappy non-lawyer sidekick to Matt's young lawyer. Tall , imperious Southern-voiced Jon Voight as the villainous opposing attorney. Dean Stockwell as the first judge in the case, and Danny Glover as the second. A surprising "where's he been all these years?" third act appearance by Roy "Jaws" Scheider(as a very amiable CEO of a very crooked insurance company). And my favorite: Mickey Rourke, almost a first act only turn as a shady ambulance chasing lawyer who looks like a suave gangster and out-charismas the entire rest of the cast with three scenes.

But wait, there's more: a HITCHCOCK leading lady: Young Charlie from Shadow of a Doubt(Teresa Wright) all grown up and old as an old lady with great charm and empathy. And sexy Virginia Madsen a few years before Sideways.

Anatomy of a Murder in its 1959 way had a helluva cast too: James Stewart in the lead(equal parts likeable, shrewd, and flat out dishonest as a defense attorney), Lee Remick(as the sexpot Army wife who may or may not have been raped), Ben Gazzara(as the hotheaded husband who shot either Remick's rapist or her lover) cartoonish sweetie pie Arthur O'Connell(as a drunken lawyer whom Stewart "loves" and we can't quite tell how); Eve Arden(as Stewart's faithful wise-cracking unpaid secretary), and Early George C. Scott going head to head with Stewart as the prosecutor. There's even Orson Bean(recently and sadly killed by a car at 91) as a psychiatrist checking out the sanity of Gazzara's killer(another crossover to Psycho.)