The Witness for the Prosecution Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

The Witness for the Prosecution Blu-ray Movie Review

Original Christie

Reviewed by Michael Reuben April 23, 2017

Forget Billy Wilder's 1957 film starring Charles Laughton and Marlene Dietrich. The latest presentation of Agatha Christie's The Witness for the Prosecution draws from a different source. Wilder based his film on Christie's successful play, which debuted in London in 1953. This new TV adaptation, co-produced by Acorn TV, BBC and Agatha Christie Ltd., returns to Christie's original short story, published almost thirty years earlier. When Dame Agatha expanded her twenty-page tale into a full-length drama, she added key plot developments, which Wilder retained. The new version proceeds on an alternate path. Screenwriter Sarah Phelps has brought to Christie's tale the same bleak outlook that informed her recent adaptation of And Then There Were None, and she has imaginatively expanded on hints and references in Christie's text to introduce wholly original elements. Phelps has even re-conceived the central device of Witness, which, as my colleague Jeffrey Kauffman noted in reviewing Wilder's film, is perhaps its weakest link in the transition from stage to screen. (It's also a gimmick that's hard to address without at least a hint of spoilers—so fair warning.)

Witness was broadcast by the BBC in two one-hour episodes on December 26 and 27, 2016, thereby joining a venerable English tradition of serving up murder as holiday entertainment. For unknown reasons, Acorn Media has chosen to consolidate the two episodes into a single two-hour movie, both on the Acorn TV streaming service and on Blu-ray. I think Witness might have played better in two parts, with a built-in "intermission" to provide some relief from the unrelenting darkness, but that's a minor quibble. This version vividly revives Christie's tale for a new audience.

Unlike Charles Laughton's character in Wilder's film, the lawyer in the new Witness is neither the recipient of a knighthood nor a celebrated courtroom orator—indeed, the opposite. John Mayhew (Toby Jones, recently seen in Sherlock) is what we might now call an ambulance chaser, scrounging for clients by paying the police to grant him access to accused criminal defendants. Mayhew's legal services do not include speaking in court, because Mayhew is a solicitor, which means that he prepares the case, then sits quietly observing while a bewigged barrister presents it to a judge and jury. (The barrister with whom Mayhew works is Sir Charles Carter, played by David Haig with appropriate swagger.) Mayhew's office is shabby and dreary, and his home life is even more depressing. His wife, Alice (Hayley Carmichael), is still mourning their teenage son, who died in the trenches of World War I. The father also served in the war, and Mayhew attributes a persistent hacking cough to lung damage from poison gas (although it might be something else).

But one day Mayhew unexpectedly lands a notorious and challenging client. Leonard Vole (Billy Howle) is charged with the brutal murder of a wealthy and much older society woman, Emily French (Kim Cattrall), who amused herself by taking young lovers and became so besotted with Leonard that she changed her will to leave him her entire fortune. Not only is Leonard's motive obvious, but he was also seen leaving Emily's home just before her body was discovered. The witness who saw his departure is Emily's permanently agitated maid, Janet (Monica Dolan), who has remained unaccountably loyal to her mistress while abhorring her romantic hobbies. Suspicious of Leonard from the start, Janet now has a chance to send him to the gallows, except that Leonard's common-law wife, Romaine Heilger (Andrea Riseborough, Oblivion), swears that Leonard was with her when Emily French was murdered. The alibi appears to be ironclad, until Romaine learns that the nights when Leonard claimed to be working were, in fact, spent in Emily French's bed. Angrily turning on her husband, Romaine renounces her story and becomes the titular witness for the prosecution.

This Witness delves even more deeply into the life of Leonard's Austrian-born wife than previous versions. In the opening sequence, we see how she and Leonard found each other in the battlefield wreckage of World War I. At the time of Leonard's trial, Romaine is working as a dancer in a music hall revue, where her rivalry with the show's star, Christine Moffat (Miranda Nolan), becomes a critical plot point. Romaine's testimony and subsequent cross-examination by Leonard's barrister reveal additional layers, as does her final appearance after the trial. Sarah Phelps's screenplay has re-imagined the character in ways that substantially address the tricky narrative issues in Wilder's film described by my colleague, and Riseborough—an acting chameleon who is barely recognizable from one role to another—gives Romaine a distracted, damaged demeanor that keeps the viewer guessing. She proves to be ideal casting for Witness's pivotal role.

As Phelps demonstrated previously with her adaptation of And Then There Were None, she is drawn to the darkest elements in Christie, and her version of Witness continues that exploration. Phelps's screenplay provides no comic leavening comparable to the byplay in Wilder's film between Charles Laughton and his fussy nurse (played by Laughton's wife, Elsa Lanchester). The efforts of this Witness' crusading lawyer are rewarded with a chilly household and a loveless marriage. Taking their cue from Phelps's script, director Julian Jarrold (Becoming Jane) and his cinematographer, Felix Wiedemann (Mr. Selfridge), accentuate the darkness at every turn, employing deep shadows, dim lighting and copious fog. Even the courtroom scenes are unusually dark, with a sickly greenish cast that afflicts every scene of Witness until after the trial, when the action shifts from London to the elegant French beach resort of Le Touquet. There the fog lifts and the view brightens, but it's only a momentary distraction, as Witness prepares to deliver its final, devastating blow.

The Witness for the Prosecution Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Witness for the Prosecution was shot digitally by Felix Wiedemann (Mr. Selfridge), whose cinematography repeatedly evokes film noir but with refinements enabled by digital acquisition and post-production. A key visual motif is established in the opening scenes on a French battlefield, where smoke and greenish poison gas obscure the view. The same greenish haze is carried forward into London of the Twenties, casting a sickly tint over every scene and accentuating both Mayhew's poor health and the quagmire of lies and deception into which his latest case has plunged him. Within this soupy atmosphere, a flash of contrasting color occasionally shines out, such as the red of the presiding judge's robe, or the blues and reds of the music hall where Mayhew watches Romaine perform.

Wherever the light is sufficient, the image on Acorn Media's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray is sharp and detailed, but numerous scenes reveal a deliberate softening and obscuring of detail, as Mayhew navigates London's seedier districts and his own blighted existence. When the story shifts to a French resort town in the final sequences, the brightness of the surroundings and the delicacy of the soft-hued palette are startling (and also confirm that the darkness and obscurity of what went before are deliberate).

Except for some fleeting instances of banding, the Blu-ray presentation is free of artifacts or distortion. Acorn has mastered Witness at an average bitrate of 22 Mbps, and although it has left substantial space unused on the BD-50, the encode appears to be capable.

The Witness for the Prosecution Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Witness arrives with a 5.1 soundtrack, encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA, that supplies richly atmospheric ambiance, especially in locales like the jail cells that Mayhew visits or Romaine's music hall. Rain and dripping water are a frequent presence in the rear speakers, but this is a dialogue-driven drama that doesn't lend itself to attention-grabbing surround effects. The dialogue is clearly rendered and properly localized, and the understated score by Paul Englishby (An Education) blends discreetly into the mix.

The Witness for the Prosecution Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes Featurettes (1080p; 1.78:1)


• From Page to Screen: Bringing Witness to Life (24:15): This is the single most substantive extra, providing a history of the production and an overview of its creators' intentions. Interviewees include Hilary Strong, Chief Executive of Agatha Christie Ltd.; James Prichard, Chairman of Christie Ltd. and the author's great-grandson; screenwriter Sara Phelps; and various members of the cast.


• Postwar Fashion: The World of Witness (11:17): Costume designer Claire Anderson, makeup designer Samantha Marshall and members of the cast discuss the fashions and lifestyles of the post-war period.


• Anatomy of Murder (2:34): Samantha Marshall describes how she made up Kim Cattrall to portray Emily French's battered corpse.


• What Makes Christie Resonate Today? (8:23): Producer Colin Wratten, screenwriter Phelps, Hilary Strong, James Prichard and several cast members discuss the universality of Christie's appeal as a storyteller.


• Filming on the Front: When the Somme Came to Liverpool (9:50): How a field in the north of England was transformed into a battlefield in France for the critical opening scene.


• Sarah Phelps's WWI Story (1:41): A bizarre historical anecdote that Phelps says is true.


• The Cast on Agatha Christie (2:34): A series of brief interview excerpts.



• On Location (1080p; 1.78:1): Each featurette highlights a specific location used in Witness.
• The Theatre (2:58)
• The Courtroom (3:24)
• Le Touquet (the Sea) (2:15)
• Liverpool (4:52)



• Character Introductions
• Kim Cattrall on Emily French (2:08)
• Monica Dolan on Janet McIntyre (0:53)
• Toby Jones on John Mayhew (0:36)
• Billy Howle on Leonard Vole (1:11)
• Hayley Carmichael on Alice Mayhew (0:41)
• Andrea Riseborough on Romaine Heilger (0:59)



• Introductory Trailers: At startup the disc plays trailers for Acorn TV, And Then There Were None and Close to the Enemy.

The Witness for the Prosecution Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In addition to Wilder's film, Christie's play was also filmed as a TV movie in 1982, with Ralph Richardson assuming the role of Leonard Vole's lawyer, Deborah Kerr as the lawyer's nurse and Beau Bridges and Diana Rigg as Mr. and Mrs. Vole. But that version, like Wilder's, was based on Christie's play. This latest adaptation is apparently the first to return to the original short story, and its effect is entirely different: brooding, tragic and forgoing any reassurance that justice will prevail. It's a pessimistic tale for a cynical age, and it's beautifully performed and presented. Highly recommended.