12 Angry Men (1957)

Director:

Sidney Lumet

Writer:

Reginald Rose (story)

Release Date:

April 1957 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Life Is In Their Hands -- Death Is On Their Minds!

Plot:

A dissenting juror in a murder trial slowly manages to convince the others that the case is not as obviously clear as it seemed in court.

Plot Keywords:

Jury | Murder | Trial | Jury Room | Doubt

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 16 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Martin Balsam	...	Juror #1
John Fiedler	...	Juror #2
Lee J. Cobb	...	Juror #3
E.G. Marshall	...	Juror #4
Jack Klugman	...	Juror #5
Edward Binns	...	Juror #6
Jack Warden	...	Juror #7
Henry Fonda	...	Juror #8
Joseph Sweeney	...	Juror #9
Ed Begley	...	Juror #10
George Voskovec	...	Juror #11
Robert Webber	...	Juror #12
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Rudy Bond	...	Judge (uncredited)
James Kelly	...	Guard (uncredited)
Billy Nelson	...	Court Clerk (uncredited)
John Savoca	...	The Accused (uncredited)

Directed by
Sidney Lumet

Writing credits
Reginald Rose		(story and screenplay)

Produced by
Henry Fonda	....	producer
George Justin	....	associate producer
Reginald Rose	....	producer

Original Music by
Kenyon Hopkins

Cinematography by
Boris Kaufman		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Carl Lerner		(film editor)

Art Direction by
Bob Markel		(as Robert Markel)

Makeup Department
Herman Buchman	....	makeup

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Don Kranze	....	assistant director (as Donald Kranze)

Sound Department
James A. Gleason	....	sound
Al Gramaglia	....	sound re-recording mixer (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Saul Midwall	....	operative cameraman
Muky	....	still photographer (uncredited)

Music Department
Kenyon Hopkins	....	conductor

Other crew
Faith Hubley	....	script supervisor (as Faith Elliott)

Production Companies

• Orion-Nova Productions

Distributors

• United Artists (1957) (USA) (theatrical) (as A United Artists Presentation)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (2008) (USA) (DVD)
• Les Artistes Associés (1958) (France) (theatrical)
• Nova Film (1957) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Shochiku Select (1959) (Japan) (theatrical)
• United Artists Films (1957) (Finland) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Japan (2001) (Japan) (DVD)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (2003) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2011) (USA) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Criterion Collection, The (USA) (laserdisc)
• Emerald (2008) (Argentina) (DVD)
• MGM Home Entertainment (2001) (Germany) (DVD)
• MGM Home Entertainment (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (DVD)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (VHS)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (video)
• SF Home Entertainment (2005) (Sweden) (DVD)
• Varus Video (Russia) (VHS)
• Yleisradio (YLE) (1967) (1978) (2004) (2010) (2011) (Finland) (TV)

Other Companies

• Solters & Digney  publicity (uncredited)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Finland:K-8 | Sweden:15 | UK:U | USA:Approved (certificate #18206) | West Germany:12 | South Korea:12 | Brazil:Livre | Japan:G (2009) | Netherlands:14 (original rating) | USA:TV-PG (tv rating) | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:T | USA:Not Rated

Filming Locations:

New York County Courthouse - 60 Centre Street, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Orion-Nova Productions

Trivia:

Most of the hard-working (relatively inexperienced) crew were longshoremen. Because there wasn't enough movie work to feed them all year, they'd have two union cards: their Local 52 cards and their ILA cards.

Goofs:

Boom mic visible: At 20:07 into the film, as the camera pans from Juror #6 to Juror #7, the shadow of the boom mic is visible on the wall behind them.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Man in corridor:You did a wonderful job, wonderful job!
Judge:To continue, you've listened to a long and complex case, murder in the first degree. Premeditated murder is the most serious charge tried in our criminal courts. You've listened to the testimony, you've had the law read to you and interpreted as it applies in this case...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "That Girl: Eleven Angry Men and That Girl (#3.3)" (1968)

No Dissonance

This film deserves to be on anyone's list of top films. My problem is that it is so perfect, so seamlessly polished, it is hard to appreciate the individual excellences.

The acting is top notch. I believe that monologue acting is quite a bit simpler than real reactive ensemble acting. Most of what we see today is monologues pretending to be conversations. But in this film, we have utter mastery of throwing emotions. Once the air becomes filled with human essence, it is hard to not get soaked ourselves as the camera moves through the thick atmosphere. Yes, there are slight differences in how each actor projects (Fonda internally, Balsam completely on his skin...) but the ensemble presents one vision to the audience.

The writing is snappy too. You can tell it was worked and worked and worried, going through several generations. It is easy to be mesmerized by this writing and acting, and miss the rare accomplishment of the camera-work. This camera is so fluid, you forget you are in one room. It moves from being a human observer, to being omniscient, to being a target. It is smart enough to seldom center on the element of most importance, so expands the field to all men.

This is very hard. Very hard, to make the camera human. So much easier to do what we see today -- acknowledge the machinery and jigger with it. Do we have a filmmaker today who could do this?

Ted's Evaluation -- 4 of 3: Every cineliterate person should experience this.