Judgement at Nuremberg [Blu-ray]

A total of 13 Nuremberg trials were held after World War II, and this courtroom drama -- one of the best on the silver screen -- deals with the third trial, that of four Nazi judges. Three Americans sit on the bench, headed by Judge Dan Haywood (Spencer Tracy). Of the four Nazis on trial, three are war criminals, but the fourth, Ernst Janning (Burt Lancaster), was anti-Hitler and anti-Nazi. As the top-flight cast members go through their paces, the stirring controversies over legal jurisdiction, the choices of these four men, the issue of Janning's staying in his position to ward off worse evils, and even more highly relevant points of jurisprudence versus politics are brought forward. Award-winning Maximillian Schell is the defense attorney, Montgomery Clift is a victim of the sterilization program carried out by the judges, and Richard Widmark is the prosecutor under pressure to let up because Germany is now an ally in the Cold War. Marlene Dietrich and Judy Garland also appear, one as the widow of a German war criminal and the other as a German woman accused of consorting with a Jew.