Stanley Kramer's film is based on a television play by Abby Mann. Over ten years after the end of World War Two, judge Dan Haywood (Spencer Tracey) is sent to Germany to preside over the prosecution of Nazis, including Ernst Janning (Burt Lancaster). While the prosecuting attorney bases his case on the war crimes and atrocities committed by those on trial, defence counsel Hans Rolfe (Maximillian Schell) claims that to try Nazi officers for simply obeying Hitler's commands is equivalent to judging all Germany.
