The Dock Brief
Cover of 1999 DVD version
Directed byJames Hill
Written byPierre Rouve
Based onthe play The Dock Brief by John Mortimer
Produced byDimitri de Grunwald
StarringPeter Sellers
Richard Attenborough
Beryl Reid
David Lodge
Frank Pettingell
CinematographyEdward Scaife
Music byRon Grainer
Production
company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studio
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer (USA/UK)
Release date
  • 20 September 1962 (1962-09-20) (UK)
Running time
88 minutes
77 minutes (DVD)
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The Dock Brief (US title Trial and Error) is a 1962 black-and-white British legal satire directed by James Hill, starring Peter Sellers and Richard Attenborough, and based on the play of the same name written by John Mortimer (creator of Horace Rumpole).

The film had its world premiere on 20 September 1962 at the Plaza Theatre in London's West End.[1]

Richard Attenborough was nominated for the 1963 BAFTA Award for best British actor for his role.

Plot

In a cell under the Old Bailey, two men meet. One is Wilfred Morgenhall, a single barrister who never gets any cases and is overjoyed to have won this dock brief, the defence of an accused individual with no lawyer (at public expense). The other is his client Herbert Fowle, an insignificant man who just wants to plead guilty to murdering his wife and get it all over.

Flashbacks show that the wife was impossible to live with and Fowle, who avoided her as much as possible, hatched a plot to get rid of her by taking in a male lodger. The lodger found her amusing and attractive, until one day he went too far and Mrs Fowle threw him out of the house. In despair at his plot having failed, Fowle killed her.

Morgenhall role plays various defences, in the process raising Fowle's will to fight. But when the case is called, he botches it and Fowle is found guilty. Morgenhall goes to visit him in prison, where he learns that Fowle has been reprieved because his defence was so poor. The two leave together, two lonely and inadequate men who have become friends.

Cast

Production

Pierre Rouve wrote the script. He opened up the play for cinema by using flashbacks.[2]

Filming took place in March and April 1962 at Shepperton Studios in London.[3] John Mortimer said that Peter Sellers wanted to play the role in a north county accent and the director James Hill had to coax him back "to what I felt were undoubtedly... southern origins" of his character.[4]

Reception

Box Office

According to MGM records, the film made a profit of $141,000.[5]

Critical

The MFB called it "refreshingly original".[6]

The Guardian called it "excellent".[7]

The new York Times called it "a good second hand excursion into the realm of character comedy."[8]

Quotes

Morgenhall: "Now you're the only case I've got, and the most difficult."

The New York Times: "Charming, comic...robustly amusing." (quoted from the DVD cover)

References

  1. ↑ The Times online archive 20/9/1962 page 2
  2. ↑ Champ, John (29 March 1962). "Production". Kine Weekly. p. 16.
  3. ↑ SELLERS DUE HERE TO PROMOTE FILM: By HOWARD THOMPSON. New York Times 13 Apr 1962: 28.
  4. ↑ Mortimer, John. Clinging to the Wreckage. Penguin. p. 189.
  5. ↑ The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  6. ↑ DOCK BRIEF, The Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 29, Iss. 336, (Jan 1, 1962): 135.
  7. ↑ Sellers as a barrister: Sympathetic failure at the Bar The Guardian (1959-2003); London (UK) [London (UK)]03 Dec 1962: 14
  8. ↑ Screen: 'Trial and Error' at Beekman: Sellers Plays Lawyer in British Comedy Attenborough Portrays Cheerful-Wife Killer By BOSLEY CROWTHER. New York Times 17 Nov 1962: 17.
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