Trial and Error (aka The Dock Brief)

Starring:Peter Sellers, Richard Attenborough, Beryl Reid, David Lodge, Frank Pettingell, Audrey Nicholson, Tristram Jellinek, Eric Woodburn, John Waite, Patrick Newell, Henry Kay, Frank Thornton, Eric Dodson, David Drummond, Ian Curry
Director: James Hill
Studio: Fox Lorber
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Jonathan Lynn, who directed the hit film My Cousin Vinny, again takes on another lightweight comedy about a trial in a small town featuring a fish-out-of-water defense attorney. Michael Richards (Seinfeld) plays a struggling actor whose best friend, a trial lawyer (Jeff Daniels), is too hung-over to defend a sleaze-ball client before a no-nonsense judge. Richards's goofy character steps in, pretending to be the attorney and accepting the part as just another acting challenge. Lynn brings nothing distinctive to all this fluff, and unfortunately, the script and cast don't click in the same magical way that Vinny did. Richards still looks at the end like a comic waiting for his big-screen break. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

GOOFY FUN.......2006-02-14

In spite of its ridiculous premise and a shallow script, TRIAL AND ERROR manages a few laughs. Jeff Daniels plays a high profile lawyer who is about to marry the boss's daughter when he is sent to Nevada to defend a man accused of ripping off mail order customers. Michael Richards plays his best friend and best man who journeys to Nevada to throw Daniels his required bachelor's party. When Daniels gets in a bar fight and overdoses on his pain medicine, Richards is forced to pretend he is the lawyer, and ask for a continuance. But Richards' formidable opponent (lovely Jessica Steen) opposes the continuance and the feisty judge (Austin Pendleton) agrees and the case goes to trial----and guess who has to defend the guilty client (a superb Rip Torn)?
Of course, there's a love story too in the form of Charlize Theron (pre Monster days) playing a lovely hotel waitress who falls for Daniels. The love story is kind of trite but the courtroom antics are sometimes hilarious with Torn giving a superlative sob story to sway the jury.
Light and airy, TRIAL AND ERROR is mindless entertainment.

An amusing movie.......2005-10-03

Looking for an escape? Trail and Error is a lighthearted fun movie. The whole cast does a creditable job and Charlize Theron (in one of her earlier movies) is delightful
What a movie without a socialogical or some deep seated message. This is one. No message, just fun

touching, romantic, and hilarious all in one movie.......2005-03-25

I remember seeing the trailer for this and laughing so hard. it's an amazing story. I so will laugh harder and harder every time I see this. Rip Torn (also from Men In Black) is hilarious in his role, Jeff Daniels is touching: sentimental, absurd when drunk, hilarious, and many other things. Michael Richards ( aka Kramer on Seinfeld) is a knockout in this romantic comedy. I love the scenes in the courtroom where the clients object , the judge sustains the objection or overrules it and so on. and then towards the end Jeff Daniels in his role gets his life on better track. where as at the beginning. he gets wasted, beat up, and his partner friend has to pretend he's the lawyer, who does a half ass job at it. Making this movie very funny. See this movie. it will touch you and make your sides ache too. if you like Jeff Daniels then see Arachniphobia, Dumb and Dumber, and some other movies he is in. if you like Michael Richards then get the Seinfeld Series and any other movies and or shows he is in. if you like Rip Torn. then see or get Men in Black, Freddy Got Fingered, and other movies

see this movie
it really is affectionate and interesting

this will still be a classic romantic comedy just like Grease is and always will be

This is subpar.......2004-12-20

Don't get me wrong. I like Michael Richards(Seinfeld is my second favorite show of all time just below the Simpsons) but this is altogether too ho hum. I never laughed out loud once during this entire movie. There were a few parts that were mildly amusing but the movie could never seem to build any momentum. Just when it would seem like it was getting good it would switch to a scene with Jeff Daniels and suddenly not so funny. Jeff Daniels best comedic role is, of corse, Dumb and dumber and he has a few good moments here but mostly he just plays the straight guy and his scenes just seem to drag the movie down. But I suppose if you like romantic comedy fluff you might not totally hate this movie

Good comedy that is worth a watch.......2004-03-10

Trial and Error is a funny movie that cannot make up its mind whether it is a physical or romantic comedy. Charlie Tuttle is a well-to-do lawyer with everything you could possibly want. However, when he gets drunk at a bachelor party and cannot go to court the next morning his actor friend, Ricky, must step in for him at the case. When Ricky realizes that what he has done is a felony, the two friends must figure a way out of the sticky situation. Watching Michael Richards as Ricky is pretty funny as he continuously stumbles across the courtroom. The problem with the movie is that it can't make up its mind what it is about. It constantly bounces back and forth between the courtroom scene and Charlie's efforts to find himself. Either way, it still has its moments and is worth a watch.

Amazon.com

British author John Mortimer is best known to television audiences as the creator of Rumpole of the Bailey, the British comedy-drama popular with PBS viewers and starring Leo McKern as an aging barrister fighting the good fight in court but henpecked at home. This 1962 film, Trial and Error, is also based on a Mortimer story and also deals with the decidedly unglamorous lives of people shackled to an imperfect legal system. Richard Attenborough plays an ordinary, quiet fellow who kills his wife after years of listening to her gaudy laughter. He freely admits he did the deed, but the defense counsel assigned to him (Peter Sellers), desperate to be part of a significant trial, tries fruitlessly to mount a compelling case for his innocence. Sellers and Attenborough, perhaps never better than in this film by James Hill (Born Free), brilliantly portray the subtle shift of authority and sympathy between their characters, the way the accused slowly comes to the emotional rescue of his own, depressed advocate. So joined are these two by a common, seemingly pointless destiny that they even pay supernatural visits to one another's pasts--much like Scrooge and his Christmas spirits. Fine stuff, very funny, and ultimately poignant. Also known as The Dock Brief. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

Humor in the first degree.......2005-03-29

Not to be confused with the later, Michael Richards movie of the same name, this is a low-key British legal satire, with a very stage-bound feel to it. The humor is dry, sometimes rather black and often very sharp. The performances are uniformly brilliant. If you enjoy John Mortimer's stories and appreciate subtle, intelligent acting then you must see this movie. Devotees of Sellers will want to see it, as an example of his early work. Other audiences may be impatient with its slow and gradual pace. It stands as evidence of the extraordinary wealth of comedic acting talent in British cinema.

SUPERBLY, ABSURDLY, VIDEO POETRY!.......2004-07-19

There should be a warning label on the cover of this dvd telling the buyer to beware that they will be changed by watching this film. I certainly was. The first time I watched it, I absolutely abhorred it and swore never to make that mistake again. I did wait long enough to totally forget it before I watched it again. Now I know that it is certainly the most intelligent movie that I have ever seen!

Like the Budda who knew the drink was poisoned but drank it anyhow to keep from hurting his hosts feelings, you need to drink this brew every time you think that you are losing your sanity. After watching the antics of Peter Sellers and Richard Attenborough you will realize that questioning your sanity is the first sane thing that you have ever done.

Black and white is truly the only color medium for this darkest of messages. We are confronted by dark choices in this world-between buying into the world like Morganhall and Mrs. Fowle or retreating into parakeeting. Fowle the wifemurderer is the hero of this fine movie and when Morgenhall(Peter Sellers) asks if he will marry again in the hope that he will kill his second wife and thus give him his second serious case, while rolling on the floor in laughter,we cannot but see into our own dark hearts.

Mr. Mortimer has given us one of the finest movies ever made.He dazzles us gradually with the truth as Emily Dickenson admonished us to do in "The Belle of Amherst."We are not blinded by this revelation but supremely entertained.The scenes where Morganhall and Fowle prepare the various defense scenarios are some of the most precious in movie history. Here the murderer plays the murderer, his own judge, and his own jury.He has already become his own executioner when he closed his eyes and chose Sellers to become his advocate. To the tantalizing music of "tradition" they test the possible defense scenarios. Our world is an imagined world, and this movie is more about the imprisoning imagination than about the liberator by the same name.

I am reminded of another movie called "Rhinocerous" where Gene Wilder plays the only human left in a world of people all turned Rhinocerous.When confronted with this bewildering choice between Rhinocerocity and humanity he is afloat in the same existential dilemna as Fowle. The question remains: To whom will they turn the next time they need a defender? Hopefully, not to Morgenhall the lawyer!

Disappointing.......2003-04-07

I expect better of a production of a John Mortimer novel, and much more from a Peter Sellers movie.

Amusing and touching.......2002-11-25

This 1962 British film is both funny and sad--funny in the deft comic touches that portray the contrast of a quiet lonely man married to a loud garish woman who laughs at everything, and sad in the strained efforts of a lowly barrister (lawyer) trying to make something of himself in his first serious case: defending the quiet man's murder of his wife.

The quiet man (Fowle) is played by Richard Attenborough and the barrister (Morganhall) by Peter Sellers. Both give great performances, as does Beryl Reid as Mrs. Fowle, shrieking with laughter at the dumbest jokes on the radio (the two cannot afford a 'telly'). In flashbacks that deliberately recall A Christmas Carol, each man shows the other the past circumstances that brought him to his meeting of the other man. For Morganhall, it's the years of study and many more years of waiting for a case to arrive at his doorstep. For Fowle, it's the years of living with his raucous wife, during which time he retreats to the quiet life that raising budgies (parakeets) offers him.

This is not a great film, or a major one, but it is well made and written, and very intelligent. It certainly recalls the famous statement, Most men lead lives of quiet desperation. In this film, the two major characters are both quiet and desperate. The smart humor that graces the film gives it a unique tone that serves the story well.

de integro.......2002-01-30

This comedy will probably appeal to both aspiring and practising barristers. Fortunately this film has not been `coloured' and therefore retains the feel it has always had. The story follows a failed barrister who, having sacrificed forty years of his after learning the law life in chambers without much work, finally gets a crown court trial. It's a murder case, it's the big case he's been waiting for, it's his break into the `big time'. The incompetent barrister Morgenhall (Peter Sellers), so desperate to win this case, conjures up facts and scenarios to win regardless of what his client (Richard Attenborough) discloses. Comical as it may sound, it's good for learning what not to do in relation to professional conduct and advocacy. Given the films setting, it has a certain amount of information that can be classed as legal historical content. A film that is more likely to be enjoyed by members of the Bar.

Average customer rating:

GOOFY FUN
An amusing movie
touching, romantic, and hilarious all in one movie
This is subpar
Good comedy that is worth a watch

Trial and Error [Region 2]
Starring: Michael Richards , Jeff Daniels , Charlize Theron , Jessica Steen , and Austin Pendleton
Director: Jonathan Lynn
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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