William Shatner's 93% RT WWII Crime Thriller Is Still a Masterpiece 65 Years Later

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Published Apr 13, 2026, 5:31 PM EDT

Thomas Butt is a senior writer. An avid film connoisseur, Thomas actively logs his film consumption on Letterboxd and vows to connect with many more cinephiles through the platform. He is immensely passionate about the work of Martin Scorsese, John Ford, and Albert Brooks. His work can be read on Collider and Taste of Cinema. He also writes for his own blog, The Empty Theater, on Substack. He is also a big fan of courtroom dramas and DVD commentary tracks. For Thomas, movie theaters are a second home. A native of Wakefield, MA, he is often found scrolling through the scheduled programming on Turner Classic Movies and making more room for his physical media collection. Thomas habitually increases his watchlist and jumps down a YouTube rabbit hole of archived interviews with directors and actors. He is inspired to write about film to uphold the medium's artistic value and to express his undying love for the art form. Thomas looks to cinema as an outlet to better understand the world, human emotions, and himself.

Today, the great William Shatner is not only the face of Star Trek, but also the entire genre of science fiction. Before he was a pop culture icon, Shatner was just a young Canadian actor trying to make a name for himself in Judgment at Nuremberg, which was one of the last times that he would ever be relatively anonymous on the screen. In fairness, though, he was up against one of the most stacked ensemble casts in cinematic history, a group that consisted of Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Maximilian Schell, Montgomery Clift, Marlene Dietrich, and Judy Garland.

What Is William Shatner's 'Judgment at Nuremberg' About?

William Shatner has been a steady presence in films and television for roughly seven decades, supplying him with an ample amount of anecdotes while speaking to the press. Over the years, he's spoken fondly of his experience starring in Judgment at Nuremberg, where he played Captain Harrison Byers, a young American officer assigned as an assistant to Chief Judge Dan Haywood (Tracy), who presided over the Nuremberg Trials in this fictionalized account of the German government's crimes against humanity.

William Shatner Revealed What It Was Like Working With Judy Garland and Spencer Tracy

Judy Garland as Irene Hoffman testifying on the stand in Judgment at Nuremberg

Playing an aide to a Spencer Tracy character couldn't have been more fortuitous, as Shatner idolized the two-time Oscar-winning legend. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, however, his attempt at paying his respects to Tracy, whom Shatner called "very aloof," did not bode well. After delivering one of his many showstopping monologues without missing a beat, Shatner approached Tracy to congratulate him, saying, "Mr. Tracy, I just want to express my admiration that you learned lines!" Tracy was not gracious to the young actor's kind remarks, responding, "I was on the stage before you were born, son," reminding him that memorizing lines is part of his DNA. After this awkward gaffe, Shatner recalled that Tracy, who died in 1967 shortly after completing Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, never spoke to him again, elaborating that "I alienated him by trying to praise him for memorizing his lines."

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Shatner also recalled his memories of working on the same set with another screen legend, Judy Garland, who played Irene Hoffman, a witness called upon to testify against the Nazi officers and scientists. Much like Tracy, Garland was also another acting role model for the young Shatner, going back to his days as a teenage theater patron in New York City. He recalled one performance where she appeared to be intoxicated on the stage, a bewildering and disappointing sight for Shatner.

Garland's tragic history with emotional, sexual, and substance abuse goes all the way back to her days as a child star on the set of The Wizard of Oz, and she died far too young at 47 years old, less than ten years following Judgment at Nuremberg. Upon being her co-star in the 1961 film, Shatner was blown away by Garland's acting prowess — particularly when she delivered her spellbinding monologue on the witness stand — describing her presence in the performance as "very fragile," a continuation of her marvelous work that he first noticed on the stage.

'Judgment at Nuremberg' Is Brilliant From Start to Finish

With so much star power on its set, it's no surprise that Judgment at Nuremberg resulted in a dense, sprawling, but always captivating legal drama about crime and punishment. Stanley Kramer, a director known for his "message" movies, is at the peak of his powers with this outstanding cast and riveting script that indulges in the thrills and explosive fury that the courtroom drama genre offers. Between the casting of Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland, and Montgomery Clift, actors who were either in their final years or suffered from a troubled and tortured past, the film casts a large shadow of the cherished institution in the court of law.

Kramer shades his mammoth film in doubt, examining whether judges and prosecutors can serve proper justice against the horrors of war. This Hollywood picture is anything but blindly patriotic, as the film fleshes out the German parties' own lines of defense and arguments stemming from America's history of atrocities against humanity that they've skated past.

Thematically rich, superbly acted, and textually significant, Judgment at Nuremberg is an essential watch in our divisive political climate, which has compelled us to confront our own past. The film is not just a treatise on postwar repercussions, but also a profound meditation on the world's never-ending cycle of violence and punishment.

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