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Trial and Error (aka The Dock Brief) |
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Description:
British author John Mortimer is best known to television audiences as the creator of Rumpole of the Bailey, the British comedy-drama popular with PBS viewers and starring Leo McKern as an aging barrister fighting the good fight in court but henpecked at home. This 1962 film, Trial and Error, is also based on a Mortimer story and also deals with the decidedly unglamorous lives of people shackled to an imperfect legal system. Richard Attenborough plays an ordinary, quiet fellow who kills his wife after years of listening to her gaudy laughter. He freely admits he did the deed, but the defense counsel assigned to him (Peter Sellers), desperate to be part of a significant trial, tries fruitlessly to mount a compelling case for his innocence. Sellers and Attenborough, perhaps never better than in this film by James Hill (Born Free), brilliantly portray the subtle shift of authority and sympathy between their characters, the way the accused slowly comes to the emotional rescue of his own, depressed advocate. So joined are these two by a common, seemingly pointless destiny that they even pay supernatural visits to one another's pasts--much like Scrooge and his Christmas spirits. Fine stuff, very funny, and ultimately poignant. Also known as The Dock Brief. --Tom Keogh
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