12 Angry Men (1957) Martin Balsam 1st Juror John Fiedler 2nd Juror Lee J. Cobb 3rd Juror E. G. Marshall 4th Juror Jack Klugman 5th Juror Edward Binns 6th Juror Jack Warden 7th Juror Henry Fonda 8th Juror Joseph Sweeney 9th Juror Ed Begley 10th Juror George Voskovec 11th Juror Robert Webber 12th Juror Rudy Bond Judge James A. Kelly Guard Bill Nelson (III) Court Clerk John Savoca Defendant Directed by: Sidney Lumet Produced by: Henry Fonda, Reginald Rose, Justin George Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins Genre: Dramas Consensus: Sidney Lumet's feature debut is a superbly written, dramatically effective courtroom thriller that rightfully stands as a modern classic. ========== The defence and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open and shut case of murder soon becomes a mini-drama of each of the jurors' prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, and each other. Based on the play, all of the action takes place on the stage of the jury room. ========== "12 Angry Men" focuses on a jury's deliberations in a capital murder case. A 12-man jury is sent to begin deliberations in the first-degree murder trial of an 18-year-old Latino accused in the stabbing death of his father, where a guilty verdict means an automatic death sentence. The case appears to be open-and-shut: The defendant has a weak alibi; a knife he claimed to have lost is found at the murder scene; and several witnesses either heard screaming, saw the killing or the boy fleeing the scene. Eleven of the jurors immediately vote guilty; only Juror No. 8 (Mr. Davis) casts a not guilty vote. At first Mr. Davis' bases his vote more so for the sake of discussion after all, the jurors must believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty. As the deliberations unfold, the story quickly becomes a study of the jurors' complex personalities (which range from wise, bright and empathetic to arrogant, prejudiced and merciless), preconceptions, backgrounds and interactions. That provides the backdrop to Mr. Davis' attempts in convincing the other jurors that a "not guilty" verdict might be appropriate. =========== In what seems to be an open and shut murder case, twelve jurors slowly begin to take serious interpretation of the "beyond a reasonable doubt" clause and over the course of an hour and a half debate their impending verdict on a hot New York summer day.