Courtroom tour-de-force

Rating: 10/10 (18 July 2005)

Classic study of the psychology of a jury in a murder trial. Exciting movie with a great cast, including Henry Fonda who also produced the film, Lee J. Cobb (perhaps his best performance ever?) and Martin Balsam as the weak but earnest chairman. But they are all great. John Fiedler as a perplexed juror, E.G.Marshall as the somewhat reserved man with the glasses, Ed Begley who plays the bigot and off course Jack Warden as the working class guy who just want to get it over with so he can go and watch a baseball game. Although the characters in some cases are somewhat on the brink of being caricatures, the movie is so nerve-racking and you get so involved ín the drama and tension of the questions involving right or wrong, good or bad, true or false, that you are just compelled to the max with this film. There is simply no better way to make a movie about a murder trial!