On September 20th 1954, Henry Fonda watched a play broadcast live on the CBS programme ‘Studio One’. The play was ’12 Angry Men’ written by Reginald Rose.

Two years later Fonda asked Rose if his courtroom drama could be extended to feature-film length. Acting as co-producers, Fonda and Rose recruited Sidney Lumet to direct. Despite having only worked previously in television, Lumet proved to be an inspired choice. His experience in live broadcasting meant according to Fonda, he had “Incredible organisation and awareness of the problem of shooting and not wasting time”. Ideal for a shoot scheduled for less than 3 weeks on the relatively modest budget of $337,000. Fonda also stated they chose Lumet “Because he had a reputation of being wonderful with actors”. Useful on a production where for almost its entirety the 12 leading players inhabit a confined space.

Set in the New York County Courthouse, 12 male jurors identified only by number assemble in the jury room on a hot and humid summers day to decide the fate of an 18 year old Puerto Rican youth, from a poor background, accused of killing his father. On the surface this appears to be an open-and-shut case with the evidence convincing against the defendant. The judge has instructed if there is any reasonable doubt he must be found not guilty and acquitted but if found guilty by a unanimous verdict he will receive the death sentence. A preliminary vote returns just one vote of not guilty from Juror 8 (Henry Fonda) who pleads to them all to look more closely at the evidence. Slowly one by one, these 12 men from different backgrounds and age groups are swayed towards delivering a not guilty verdict as the atmosphere becomes increasingly volatile and their preconceptions and prejudices are exposed.

The original script made few references to camera movements and techniques. Lumet and his cinematographer Boris Kaufman took the opportunity to intensify the growing claustrophobia by starting the film with wide-angle lenses positioned above eye level and then gradually progressed to telephoto lenses at a lower angle so that by the end the actors are nearly all shown in closeup.

As well as Fonda there are also excellent performances from Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley, E.G. Marshall, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, John Fleder, Jack Klugman, Edward Binns, Joseph Sweeney, George Voskovec and Robert Webber. ’12 Angry Men’ was nominated for 3 Academy Awards for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Writing of Adapted Screenplay, losing out to ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’ in all 3 categories but did win the Golden Bear Award at the 7th Berlin International Film Festival.

It is testament to Lumets film that its true legacy is that it remains one of cinemas most powerful studies in justice and social equality. The director said the theme of his film was simply “listen”