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A splendidly realized film adaptation of a dramatic classic from television's Golden Age, 12 Angry Men is guaranteed to rivet the attention of even the most casual viewer, despite its claustrophobic one-room setting and lack of physical action. Reginald Rose's adaptation of his own teleplay opens on a hot summer day in a New York courthouse, where 12 jurors retire to a small, stifling room to deliberate the fate of a teenage boy accused of murdering his father. The first ballot finds quietly dignified Henry Fonda the lone holdout for acquittal. Blustery Lee J. Cobb leads the charge for conviction, and it remains for the other ten -- played by distinguished character actors Ed Begley, E. G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, John Fiedler, George Voskovec, Robert Webber, Edward Binns, and Joseph Sweeney -- to be swayed by the grimly determined Fonda. The feature-film directorial debut of Sidney Lumet (Fail-Safe), 12 Angry Men derives its dramatic strength not only from his economic, incisive handling of a powerhouse cast, but also from Rose's sharply limned character studies. This 1957 film has been remade and reworked several times, but none of the subsequent versions has ever approached the original's perfection.
Condition:NEW. Brand New Factory Sealed
TRACK LISTINGS
Cast & Crew - 12 Angry Men
Henry Fonda
(Films)(Biography) Juror #8
Lee J. Cobb
(Films)(Biography) Juror #3
Ed Begley Sr.
(Films)(Biography) Juror #10, Juror No. 10
E.G. Marshall
(Films)(Biography) Juror #4
Jack Klugman Juror #5
Jack Warden Juror #7
Martin Balsam Juror #1
Edward Binns Juror #6
Joseph Sweeney Juror #9
George Voskovec Juror #11
Robert Webber Juror #12
John Fiedler Juror #2
Rudy Bond Judge
James A. Kelly Guard
Bill Nelson Court Clerk
John Savoca Defendant
Technical Credits
Sidney Lumet Director
Herman Buchman Makeup
Henry Fonda Producer
Kenyon Hopkins Score Composer
George Justin Associate Producer
Boris Kaufman Cinematographer
Carl Lerner Editor
Reginald Rose Original Story, Producer, Screenwriter
Product Details
Actors: Ed Begley, Henry Fonda, Jack Warden, Jack Klugman, E.G. Marshall
Directors: Sidney Lumet
Format: Black & White, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Language: English
Subtitles: English
Region: (Read more about DVD/Blu-ray formats.)
Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
Number of discs: 1
Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Criterion Collection
DVD Release Date: November 22, 2011
Run Time: 96 minutes
This DVD is also available as part of a box set:
United Artists Super Deluxe Gift Set (90 films)
Special Features:
New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the blu-ray edition
Frank Schaffner’s 1955 television version, with an introduction by Ron Simon, director of the Paley Center for Media Studies
“12 Angry Men”: From Television to the Big Screen, a video essay by film scholar Vance Kapley comparing the Sidney Lumet and Schaffner versions
Archival interviews with Lumet
New interview about the director with writer Walter Bernstein
New interview with Simon about television writer Reginald Rose
New interview with cinematographer John Bailey in which he discusses cinematographer Boris Kaufman
Tragedy in a Temporary Town (1956), a teleplay directed by Lumet and written by Rose
Original theatrical trailer
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by writer and law professor Thane Rosenbaum
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