Der letzte Zeuge

Wolfgang Staudte worked from the Second World War up to 1956 in East Germany and afterwards in West Germany. One of his most well known films was "Die Mörder sind unter uns" (1946) with Hildegard Knef.

By 1960 his most innovative years were gone, and that can be seen from "The last witness". It is a rather standard court room drama. Good but not special. Surprising end but rather static in the rest of the film.

The real value of the film is in its criticism on the judicial apparatus. The police is more interested in getting a file closed as quickly as possible than in finding the truth. The court is full of bourgeois prejudices. A woman with lots of amorous affairs must also be perfectly capable of committing the crime. A woman having an extramarital relationship wit a married man threatens his marriage, the responsibility of the man himself is just denied.

Very good "old school " krimi , from the director who produced the classic "die Mörder sind unter uns" starring Hildegarde Kneff .

The subject is particularly awful : a baby girl strangled in her bed ,and the mother is the main suspect ;Ingrid (Ellen Schwiers) has a racy past , she was free and easy, a married man's and a doctor's lover ,and there are too many things against her to bring her compassion : her love letters shock well-meaning people and didn't she sit for scandalous cheesecake? Ellen Schwiers ,intelligently ,opts for a distant performance :at times, the viewer does not side with her,a woman who hardly sheds a tear for he horrible loss (but during the trial ,and mainly in her very last sentence , she shows her true colors).

Both this elegant sexy woman and her lover-friend Dr Fox (Hanss Lothar) resent the humiliation of being remanded in custody as there is no real evidence against them .Through the character of the clever doctor (who is also a researcher) , Staudte steps into French André Cayatte's shoes ; both directors would denounce the conditions of life in the German /French prisons circa 1960,and the miscarriages of justice. And the so called justice does not take in for questioning Mr. Rameil (Martin Held)too much , because he's got an alibi , but mainly because he's a wealthy industrialist.

The "last minute witness " is a hackneyed trick ,but the whodunit does not matter that much : even the innocents are punished.