Which 1961 courtroom drama about Nazi judges starred Spencer Tracy and Burt Lancaster?

The 1961 courtroom drama starring Spencer Tracy and Burt Lancaster is Judgment at Nuremberg. Directed and produced by Stanley Kramer, the film dramatizes a fictionalized version of the 1947 Judges' Trial, one of the postwar Nuremberg Military Tribunals.

Tracy plays Chief Trial Judge Dan Haywood, while Lancaster portrays Dr. Ernst Janning, one of four German judges and prosecutors accused of crimes against humanity under the Nazi regime. The story examines individual responsibility, obedience to unjust laws, and the moral compromises that allowed persecution to operate through supposedly legal institutions.

The film was adapted from Abby Mann's earlier 1959 Playhouse 90 television drama. Its large ensemble also included Maximilian Schell, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Montgomery Clift, Richard Widmark, and William Shatner. Schell won the Academy Award for Best Actor, and Mann won for his screenplay.

A common mix-up is with the actual Nuremberg Trials, which prosecuted several groups of Nazi officials. Judgment at Nuremberg focuses specifically on judges and legal officials, and its characters and courtroom proceedings are dramatized rather than a literal transcript of the historical trial.