Anatomy of a Murder

Anatomy of a Murder is a 1959 American courtroom drama[2] film produced and directed by Otto Preminger. The screenplay by Wendell Mayes was based on the 1958 novel of the same name written by Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D. Voelker under the pen name of Robert Traver. Voelker based the novel on a 1952 murder case in which he was the defense attorney.[3]

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Anatomy of a Murder
Theatrical release poster by Saul Bass
Directed by	Otto Preminger
Screenplay by	Wendell Mayes
Based on	Anatomy of a Murder 1957 novel by Robert Traver
Produced by	Otto Preminger
Starring	James Stewart Lee Remick Ben Gazzara Arthur O'Connell Eve Arden Kathryn Grant Joseph N. Welch George C. Scott Orson Bean Russ Brown Murray Hamilton Brooks West
Cinematography	Sam Leavitt
Edited by	Louis R. Loeffler
Music by	Duke Ellington
Production company	Carlyle Productions
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	July 2, 1959 (1959-07-02) (New York)
Running time	160 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2 million[1]
Box office	$8 million (rentals)[1]

The film stars James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Eve Arden, George C. Scott, Arthur O'Connell, Kathryn Grant, Brooks West (Arden's husband), Orson Bean, and Murray Hamilton. The judge was played by Joseph N. Welch, a real-life lawyer famous for dressing down Joseph McCarthy during the Army–McCarthy hearings. It has a musical score by Duke Ellington, who also appears in the film. It has been described by Michael Asimow, UCLA law professor and co-author of Reel Justice: The Courtroom Goes to the Movies (2006), as "probably the finest pure trial movie ever made".[4]

In 2012, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[5][6][7]