Der letzte Zeuge (1960)

Crime

Director Wolfgang Staudte who left East Germany in 1953 to make movies in West Germany, takes a few swipes at the West German judicial system in this fairly effective courtroom drama about the murder of a four-month-old baby. Police almost immediately arrest the mother Ingrid (Ellen Schwiers) who is the mistress of the father, a rich business VIP married to another woman. His position and wealth keep him insulated from suspicion. A hot-shot lawyer (Hanns Lothar) has to overcome the unaccountably biased perceptions of the police, the judge, the prosecutor and almost everyone else in the judicial system. The defence lawyer, driven to an extreme, knows he has to find the real killer or his client will be convicted.

Updated May 28 2020

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FACTS

Runtime: 102 mins Rating: 7.0

Cast

Lucie Mannheim

Frau Bernhardy

Hanns Lothar

Rechtsanwalt Dr. Fox

Tilly Lauenstein

Aufseherin

Werner Hinz

Landgerichtsrat Ricker

Harald Juhnke

Kriminalsekretär Wenzel

Alexa von Porembsky

Sekretärin

Ellen Schwiers

Ingrid Bernhardy

Hans Hessling

Vorsitzender des Schwurgerichts