Anatomy of a Murder

The music in Anatomy of a Murder is all jazz composed by Duke Ellington. Jazz is considered popular music and it reflects the time period in which the movie was created (1959). I didn't really think that the jazz was appropriate for this film as I don't think it did anything to enhance the mood or emotion. I felt that it was disconnected with what was being shown on the screen and mainly just filler music. However, someone pointed out in thier blog that "since jazz has no real beat to it, and is spontaneous it is appropriate for the unknown outcome of the film." This is a really great point. I hadn't thought of this. So I guess in this manner it does fit.
Durning the opening credits of the movie, a long jazz overture played and it continued to play as the movie started and we saw Jimmy Stewart as Paul Biegler driving his car. The music seemed to be used as filler.
This movie has a few instances of diegetic music. We see Paul playing a jazzy piano tune, bells ringing with a church in the background, a man playing the piano at a dance hall, and jazz music coming from a record player at Paul's house.
The music in this film is not wall to wall. In certain dramatic scenes when Laura and Clarence Manion are giving thier account of what happend to Paul, there is no music to emphasize the shocking nature of the subject (rape in the 1950s) they are talking about. There is also no music in the courtroom scenes and it is up to the actors to provide all of the drama.