Judgement At Nuremberg Details

The trial of the judges who enforced Hitler's laws allowing wartime atrocities to occur might not be obvious movie material, but in the hands of brilliant producer-director Stanley Kramer this three-hour saga is mesmerising. Kramer pulled out all the dramatic stops. As producer, he secured one of the great casts of all time, headed by Spencer Tracy as Allied judge Dan Haywood, with touching cameos by Oscar-nominated Judy Garland as Irene Hoffman and Montgomery Clift as Rudolph Petersen, both victims of Nazi tyranny. The film has great dignity, exemplified by Burt Lancaster's intellectual German Ernst Janning, and an Oscar-winning performance from Maximilian Schell (Maria's younger brother), and such star-power makes this grimmest of tales eminently watchable. Kramer has been accused of sugaring the pill, but his methods here attracted new, and notably young, audiences to this Schindler's List of its day.

Interminable, heavy-going dramatic documentary expanded from a succinct TV play into a courtroom marathon with philosophical asides. All good stuff, but too much of it.