Synopsis
In 1947, four German judges who served on the bench during the Nazi regime face a military tribunal to answer charges of crimes against humanity. Chief Justice Haywood hears evidence and testimony not only from lead defendant Ernst Janning and his defense attorney Hans Rolfe, but also from the widow of a Nazi general, an idealistic U.S. Army captain and reluctant witness Irene Wallner.
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Cast
- Spencer TracyDan Haywood
- Burt LancasterErnst Janning
- Richard WidmarkTad Lawson
- Marlene DietrichMrs. Bertholt
- Maximilian SchellHans Rolfe
- Judy GarlandIrene Hoffman Wallner
- Montgomery CliftRudolph Petersen
- William ShatnerHarrison Byers
- Werner KlempererEmil Hahn
- Kenneth MacKennaKenneth Norris
Recommendations
- 80
The New York Times
On the point of the fundamental issue in the Nazi war guilt trials that were held in Nuremberg, Germany, after World War II, Stanley Kramer, the producer-director, has pinned a powerful, persuasive film. The major weakness, perhaps, of the whole thing is that it is inevitably compressive and sometimes glib. The strength and wonder of it is that it manages to say so much that still needs to be said. - 80
TV Guide Magazine
Though unrelentingly bleak, Judgment at Nuremberg is absorbing from beginning to end. - 70
Time Out
There are no surprises in the direction, and Abby Mann's screenplay plays the expected tunes, but there's enough conviction on display to reward a patient spectator. - 60
Variety
Judgment at Nuremberg is twice the size of the concise, stirring and rewarding production on television's Playhouse 90 early in 1959. A faster tempo by producer-director Stanley Kramer and more trenchant script editing would have punched up picture. - 60
The New Yorker
Gavin Lambert summed it up: An all-star concentration-camp drama, with special guest-victim appearances. - 50
Time
On the whole, Director Kramer has almost arrogantly exceeded his judicial warrant. He has also crudely mismanaged both actors and camera, and has carelessly permitted several reels of fat to accumulate around the movie's middle. - 50
Chicago Reader
Grandstanding 1961 courtroom drama about the Nazi war trials, courtesy of producer-director Stanley Kramer, breast-beating screenwriter Abby Mann, and an all-star cast—watchable enough on its own terms, but insufferably glib next to something like Shoah.
