NOTHING beats this original

Rating: 10/10 (10 June 2007)

Why make another version of this movie? I just finished watching the 1957 version and I admit it seems like a play (and probably was developed originally as a play since it basically takes place in one room) and it was also broadcast live during the heyday of the golden years of television. We'll never see the talent of the actors in the room who have since passed-away. In fact, only Jack Klugman (at age 85) is still with us. Other movies seem tailor-made for plays, such as Glengarry Glen Ross. I'm not sure if the casting was simply dead-on or the actors happened to nail the roles they had or a combination, but each person seems very well-suited to his role and it's hard not to get wrapped up in the dialogue and the general pace of the movie (as though you were peering into the jury room through a peephole). In fact, as I watched each actor, I identified with people I knew who had the same characteristics, such as Jack Warden's wise-ass, or Ed Begley, Sr.'s angry racist or Lee J. Cobb's uptight, high-strung yelling man or any of the other people. I do think that Jack Klugman's role may have been miscast. I didn't necessarily identify with him as a product of the slums. They could have cast a minority for his role but I guess in 1957 all-white, male juries were what was the norm.