A true black & white classic

Rating: Null/10 (13 December 2001)

Like "Sunset Blvd," "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" and many other B & W classics, this is one film that could NOT have been made in color -- at least not with the same effect.
In fact, it is unlikely that Hollywood would even TRY to stage a movie today in a locked room with 12 individuals spending 2-3 hours together to hash out a trial verdict. Yet Sidney Lumet managed to take this simple plot and produce an enduring and endearing movie for the ages.
Henry Fonda, Jack Klugman and great veteran character actors like Lee J. Cobb, Jack Warden, Ed Begley, Martin Balsam & E.G. Marshall make a wonderful array of living, breathing Everyman jurors. (And pipsqueak John Fielder -- Mr. Peterson on "The Bob Newhart Show" -- is an excellent foil to the bullying Cobb and Begley when he builds up his nerve!) The pace is steady and gradually builds to a climax without any of the Hollywoodish melodrama some 1940s & 1950s films had.
Maybe the best thing about the film is the wonderful black & white cinematography. Some of the close-ups of Fonda & especially the old man (Juror # 9) are downright eerie.
This is the kind of film and the type of performance that made Fonda what he was. This is a memorable triumph of mid-20th century Hollywood.