Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1959)

Jto ffork mmt$ . WELCH WILL ACT AS JUDGE IN FILM Lawyer Says Role, His First, Is Closest He'll Ever Get to Sitting on the Bench By A. H. WEILEB Joseph N. Welch, who has | categorically denied that he is jan actor, has signed to appear in his first acting role. The Boston lawyer will play the featured role of a judge in a major motion picture, "Anatomy of a Murder." Mr. Welch achieved nationwide prominence in 1954 as the urbane and sagacious counsel for the Army in the hearings on the dispute between the Army and the late Senator Joseph R. McCarthy before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. During the hearings, watched by vast television audiences, the Army contended that Senator McCarthy, a Wisconsin Republican, bad sought preferential treatment for an aide, G. David Schine, before and after Mr. Schine was drafted. Mr. Welch's calm, incisive, legal ripostes were brought to bear against Senator McCarthy, who assert ed that the Army had raisea tne issue to force him to ease his investigation of Army security measures. The film version of "Anatomy of a Murder," a best-selling novel by Robert Traver, will be produced and directed by Otto Preminger on location in Ishpeming and Marquette, Mich., and Hollywood beginning in March. The Bench Beckons Reached at his home In Harwich, Mass., yesterday, the 68year-old lawyer said his move had been fully premeditated. "I took this assignment with a sort of wrench of the spirit," he said, "realizing that people would say that I've quit being a lawyer to become an actor. But," he added with a chuckle, "I sensed also that this is the closest I'll ever come to being a judge, and I guess this is what appealed to me." Although he would not divulge the terms of his contract, Mr. Welch conceded that he was being paid "a pleasant sum" for his five-week stint in motion pictures. , Mr. Welch has app'eared in television assignments as a commentator on programs about the Constitution of the United States and the Lizzie Borden case on the "Omnibus" series. Robert Traver is the pen name for John D. Voelker, who is a Supreme Court justice in Michigan, where all of the action in the film takes place. Heralb NEW^YORK ©ribune FOUNDED APRIL 10. 1841 Mr. Welch Goes to Hollywood "I'm a trial lawyer," Joseph N. Welch once said when approached by a TV producer, "and there's a slice of ham in every trial lawyer. He might not be any good if that slice of ham were not there. But I'm not an actor." The remark Is modest, but few people would agree with it. As the Army's counsel during the televised McCarthy hearings of 1954, Mr. Welch disarmed his foes not only with wisdom and wit, but with subtle dramatic skills. In the arching of an eyebrow he could expose a lie; In the inflection of his voice he could turn a simple question Into a sharp weapon. It was no accident that TV made him so many offers after the hearings ended, and Mr. Welch obviously relished the ones that he accepted, such as the "Omnibus" programs on the Constitution, capital punishment and the Lizzie Borden trial. On them he secured his place as a national sage while the other principals in the McCarthy fracas dropped out of the public gaze. Now Mr. Welch has signed to play the Judge in the movie version of "Anatomy of a Murder," which will star James Stewart and Lana Turner. The book has all the popular ingredients, as its fifty-two weeks on the best-seller list attest. But can it match the McCarthy hearings for sheer drama? Probably not. Mr. Welch on a Hollywood set, sitting in his mock judicial robes, speaking lines that writers have contrived for maximum thrills and suspense, will still find the movie a tame charade, proving the old adage that truth is stranger than fiction. Of course, as a trial lawyer he has known this all along. But at least he will have the new experience of viewing court procedure from a different side of the bench, for he has never been a judge before. Nor does It fall to every man In his career to co-star with Lana Turner. As Mr. Welch said of his venture into commercial television a few seasons ago, "It Is a little champagne added to an old man's life after he has been eating in cafeterias for years." A NEW CAREER? Joseph N. Welch, left, Boston attorney, who will play a judge in forthcoming movie, "Anatomy of Murder," meets his producer-director, Otto Preminger. It will be Mr. Welch's first acting role Newsweek New Roles During the dramatic ArmyMcCarthy hearings of 1954, the Army's feisty, witty counsel, Joseph Nye Welch, became as much a daytime television personality as Arthur Godfrey. Now, the 68-year-old Boston barrister has selected another medium— the movies. Welch will portray a judge in the film adaptation of the best-selling "Anatomy of a Murder." The Iowa-1 attorney, who has appeared on tel L sion's "Omnibus" several times 1954, insists that he isn't as good an as "director Otto Preminger thinks.' he said, "I sensed that this is the clc III ever come to being a judge." JOSEPH " "^ joins JAMES STEWART • LANA TUR] EVE ARDEN • james daly • gi STARTS SHOOTING MID N