Der letzte Zeuge

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.