NFR Project: '12 Angry Men' (1957)

 

NFR Project: “12 Angry Men”

Dir: Sidney Lumet

Scr: Reginald Rose

Pho: Boris Kaufman

Ed: Carl Lerner

Premiere: April 10, 1957

96 min.

Question: how do you make a dynamic film out of a bunch of talking heads?

This was the problem set out for first-time feature film director Sidney Lumet. His ingenious solution to this problem enlivens 12 Angry Men, a film that takes place almost entirely in a small, crowded New York courthouse room where jurors debate the guilt or innocence of a teenager accused of murder.

Lumet had already earned a reputation as a top-notch director of actors in his work for television prior to this assignment. He was a classic East Coast artist, a New Yorker who, as his career developed, painted many pictures of the city on film. Here he takes a dozen excellent actors and puts them through their paces, creating an absorbing drama about the judicial system and the frailties of human perception and decision-making.

The drama was originally written for television, appearing on Studio One on Sept. 20, 1954. The writer, Reginald Rose, was inspired by his own jury duty. Back in the early days of television, everything was done live, much as in a stage play. Adept and sensitive direction was needed to pull off this difficult creative feat – and another future film director, Franklin J. Schaffner, was at the helm for the broadcast.

When the film opens, we are briefly shown the face of the young defendant, tense and aggrieved. We quickly move to the jury room, into which our players file. Eleven jurors vote guilty; one man (Henry Fonda) votes not guilty. The majority complain and harass Fonda, but as he begins to articulate his objections to the evidence presented, minds are changed. Mind you, Fonda does not declare that the boy is innocent, he simply harbors a reasonable doubt as to his guilt and therefore is reluctant to sentence him to death.

The cast is a cross-section of (white male) humanity. There is the principled Fonda, an insecure jury foreman (Martin Balsam), a meek bank teller (John Fiedler), a couple of angry, prejudiced business owners (Lee J. Cobb and Ed Begley), an immigrant watchmaker (George Voskovec), a silly ad man (Robert Webber), a retired man (Joseph Sweeney), a house painter (Edward Binns), a stockbroker (E.G. Marshall), and two other working-class jurors (Jack Klugman and Jack Warden).

The day is hot, with a rainstorm threatening. Sweating and arguing, the twelve go over the testimony given to them again and again. Fonda wears down the certainty of the voters for guilt; eventually he convinces all of them to vote not guilty. As this happens, we are given essential details about each and every juror, giving each of them a distinct character and viewpoint.

So how did Lumet do it? He started with the camera poised slightly above the heads of the actors; gradually, he brings the camera down to level with their faces, and then, in the last third of the film, he shoots from below, letting the performers’ faces loom over the audience. Gifted with outstanding performances from everyone involved, the merciless close-ups that make up the film are filled with excellently underplayed reactions.

The result is a commanding meditation on the flimsy nature of the implementation of human justice, and the prejudices and mental shortcuts that cause people to make bad decisions. Fonda is the voice of reason here; the men respond to his quiet insistence that the boy may not be guilty with varying degrees of disbelief and credulity. Is justice served? Perhaps; the system calls for a unanimous verdict, and this particular jury comes down on the side of innocence. We can but hope that, if we were ever in the defendant’s position, there would be a Henry Fonda on the jury.

The NFR Project is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: The Bridge on the River Kwai.

NFR Project: '3:10 to Yuma' (1957)

 

NFR Project: “3:10 to Yuma”

Dir: Delmer Davies

Scr: Halsted Welles

Pho: Charles Lawton Jr.

Ed: Al Clark

Premiere: Aug. 7, 1957

92 min.

A decent little Western, with many similarities to High Noon (1952). In it, a rancher, Dan Evans, (Van Heflin) takes up the duty of guarding a wanted man, Ben Wade (Glenn Ford). Ford here plays one of his rare “bad” characters, just as winningly as he played good guys. The plan is to get the outlaw onto the 3:10 train to Yuma, where the Territorial Prison is. Wade’s gang is all set to free him. Ignoring the faint-heartedness of those around him, Evans literally sticks to his guns and perseveres, getting his man to the train on time.

The movie is unique in that it primarily deals with the mental states and emotions of those involved. There is little gunplay, and no chase to speak of. Wade tries to convince Evans to let him loose, offering him a large sum of money for the favor. Evans refuses. He prevents another man from killing Wade – and Wade returns the favor by allowing himself to be taken off on the train.

The NFR Project is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: 12 Angry Men.

NFR Project: 'The Ten Commandments' (1956)

 

NFR Project: “The Ten Commandments”

Dir: Cecil B. DeMille

Scr: Aeneas MacKenzie, Jesse L. Lasky, Jr., Jack Gariss, Fredric M. Frank

Pho: Loyal Griggs

Ed: Anne Bauchens

Premiere: Nov. 14, 1956

220 min.

Can you top this? Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 swan song as a director is the most hyperbolic epic of all time.

“The greatest movie picture of all time!” “A supreme emotional experience!” “DeMille’s overwhelming masterpiece!”

Modesty of means and statement was never a strong point with DeMille (1881-1959), the master showman of the American cinematic extravaganza. Only he would have the guts to turn the story of Moses and Passover into a rip-snortin' romantic triangle – Moses (Charlton Heston), the future Pharoah (Yul Brynner), and Princess Nefreteri (Anne Baxter) -- complete with oily, bare-chested male leads, a drag-queen-ready performance from Baxter, and an ornery and disheveled cast of thousands.

The stiff, painterly frame compositions and bombastic, super-serious acting style make this an instant camp classic. It is time once again to teach our children the true meaning of Pesach by laughing along to this enormous zircon of a film.

Theologically, it's a nightmare, despite the reams of experts referenced defensively in the opening credits. In DeMille's very special preshow front-of-curtain chat, he clearly equates ancient tyranny with contemporary Communism. DeMille's voice continues to narrate as the film begins.

In this interpretation, Moses is more of a he-manly star-spangled freedom-seeker. Shoehorning this complex set of stories into a riches-to-rags-to-Sinai saga formula makes this Ten Commandments the apotheosis of cinematic adaptations. The crazy-mirror sumptuousness of the scenery and the burning conviction in everyone's eyes (save for Cedric Hardwicke as Pharoah, who does whatever he damn pleases on screen and gets away with it) can't anchor its outrageous extravagances.

Comparisons of this earnest Biblical confetti with the ironic, subversive theater of Charles Ludlam and others who pretended to the throne of the Theatre of the Ridiculous are apt. The mise en scene and dialogue collide, with a screech of cocked eyebrows and sideways glances.

“Moses has words. Pharaoh has spears.”

“Your tongue will dig your grave, Memnet!”

 “Does it take the entire Nile to quench your thirst?”

“Oh, Moses, Moses, why of all men did I fall in love with a prince of fools?”

“In the copper mines of Giza, the living are dead.”

“Too many ears tie a rat’s tongue.”

“All that you would have from me, he would not even take!”

“You do not cry out, Joshua. But you will – for the mercy of death!”

“So shall it be written – so shall it be done.”

And on and on. It’s a heckuva story, deliriously extravagant. Ludicrous, yet compelling.

DeMille was a past master of cinema. He made 70 movies; 52 of them in the Silent Era. He started directing movies before the U.S. entered World War I. In fact, he had already made this movie! In 1923, he cranked out a silent epic with the story of Moses an as epic prologue to a modern-day drama. This first Ten Commandments was a big hit.

DeMille was in love with things titanic – statues, sphinxes, walls, gates. His silent version of Commandments was erected at the Guadalupe Dunes, 170 miles north of L.A. where he built massive sets, ran out of money, borrowed more, and finished his grand vision. (The sets persist beneath the sand there.) In this first go-round, he takes us from the Ninth Plague to Moses’ anger at the specter of the Golden Calf.

In 1956, he was armed with better special effects, a killer Elmer Bernstein score, VistaVision, Technicolor, sound, and a raft of supporting actors that keep their performances to the proper operatic pitch. At heart DeMille was a turn-of-the-last-century purveyor of old-fashioned, grandiosely staged melodramas; what could be more inherently melodramatic than the workings of the Lord? It is stiff. It is stagey. But it is engraved on our collective psyche.

DeMille is on a quest here. He wants to give you the definitive Moses, and he largely succeeds. He is perfectly sincere in his approach, but he filters the ancient story through his showman’s imagination. He blows up everything as big as he can get it. The colors are garish, the manners bombastic. He crowds the screen with some strong actors – Edward G. Robinson, Vincent Price, John Carradine, John Derek, Judith Anderson, Yvonne De Carlo, Woody Strode, Michael Ansara.  Over-actors all. And some actors from the Silent Era – H.B. Warner, Henry Wilcoxson.

Here, Moses, the hot-shot adopted son of Cedric Hardwicke, is cast into the desert when he announces that he is actually a Hebrew, drawn from the river by the Pharoah’s sister. Oh, and he killed Baka, the overseer. This throws into the dustbin his blooming romance with Nefreteri, who must now marry his rival Ramses.

He goes out into the wilderness and gets his head together. He gets married, settles down. Ramses becomes Pharoah. Then we get the Burning Bush, the mission to Egypt. Nefreteri tries to woo him back, but Moses is all holy now (he has an overarching gray mane now that he has seen the Lord) and he doesn't want her. The ultimate revenge -- he is dedicated to God, you poor woman.

Then the Plagues, the liberation and crossing of the Red Sea, the giving of the Commandments, the disobedience of Israel.

Then we get a quick voiceover informing us that the Hebrew people then had to wander for 40 years (actually, it was the reaction to the report of the twelve scouts that condemned Israel to four decades of wandering). Finally, he gets them to the Promised Land! But he can’t go in himself. (True story: he pissed off God at another point in the wanderings.) So, good old white-haired Moses goes walking up the side of Mount Nebo, turns around, and waves bye-bye! The End.

It’s a wild ride. It’s meant to overwhelm your senses and confirm your faith in God.

The NFR Project is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: 3:10 to Yuma.