Sidney Lumet's directorial debut Twelve Angry Men remains a tense, atmospheric (though slightly manipulative and stagey) courtroom thriller, in which the viewer never sees a trial and the only action is verbal. As he does in his later corruption commentaries such as Serpico or Q & A, Lumet focuses on the lonely one-man battles of a protagonist whose ethics alienate him from the rest of jaded society. As the film opens, the seemingly open-and-shut trial of a young Puerto Rican accused of murdering his father with a knife has just concluded and the 12-man jury retires to their microscopic, sweltering quarters to decide the verdict. When the votes are counted, 11 men rule guilty, while one--played by Henry Fonda, again typecast as another liberal, truth-seeking hero--doubts the obvious. Stressing the idea of "reasonable doubt", Fonda slowly chips away at the jury, who represent a microcosm of white, male society--exposing the prejudices and preconceptions that directly influence the other jurors' snap judgments. The tight script by Reginald Rose (based on his own teleplay) presents each juror vividly using detailed soliloquies, all which are expertly performed by the film's flawless cast. Still, it's Lumet's claustrophobic direction--all sweaty close-ups and cramped compositions within a one-room setting--that really transforms this contrived story into an explosive and compelling nail-biter. --Dave McCoy, Amazon.com
SIDNEY LUMET'S UNPARALLELED TRIAL DRAMA STARRING HENRY FONDA ONE OF THE TEN MOST POPULAR FILMS OF ALL TIME, ACCORDING TO IMDB.COM! 12 Angry Men, by SIDNEY LUMET (Network), may be the most radical big-screen courtroom drama in cinema history. A behind-closed-doors look at the American legal system as riveting as it is spare, the iconic adaptation of Reginald Rose's teleplay stars HENRY FONDA (Young Mr. Lincoln) as the initially dissenting foreman on a jury of white men ready to pass judgment on a Puerto Rican teenager charged with murdering his father. What results is a saga of epic proportions that plays out in real time over ninety minutes in one sweltering room. Lumet's electrifying snapshot of 1950s America on the verge of change is one of the great feature-film debuts. SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES: New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack Frank Schaffner's 1955 television version, with an introduction by Ron Simon, director of the Paley Centre for Media Studies 12 Angry MenĀ: From Television to the Big Screen, a video essay by film scholar Vance Kapley comparing the Sidney Lumet and Schaffner versions Archival interviews with Lumet New interview about the director with writer Walter Bernstein New interview with Simon about television writer Reginald Rose New interview with cinematographer John Bailey in which he discusses cinematographer Boris Kaufman Tragedy in a Temporary Town (1956), a teleplay directed by Lumet and written by Rose Original theatrical trailer PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by writer and law professor Thane Rosenbaum Click Images to Enlarge
The man Ricky Gervais has described as The funniest most clich''-free comedian on the circuit returns to reinvent stand-up comedy television. Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle marks the return of arguably one of Britain's finest stand up comedians and shows him at his masterful and hilarious best. Each of the six episodes sees Stewart explore a different theme in a stand-up routine illustrated with sketches featuring an ensemble cast of well known comic talent. In each episode Stewart sets out to answer a question that addresses a specific aspect of modern life; Why for example is there a tide of banal books in bookshops threatening to engulf us? Does the world really need celebrity hardbacks? Stewart's on a journey to find out - and meets some interesting authors along the way. Has political correctness really gone mad or is it just that a lot of people confuse political correctness with health and safety legislation? Stewart tries to pick his way through the PC minefield and reveals how it only made him put on weight. Stewart sets out to discover the truth about popular television duo Ant and Dec and visits a quaint English village where The Funniest Thing That's Ever Been On Television Ever has given rise to a unique rural tradition. Sort of. Whatever the topic Stewart addresses it with razor sharp wit using every argument at his disposal to convey his point. And you'l have learned something along the way (which may or may not be true).
It's New Year's Eve and the college boys of Sigma Phi fraternity have invited friends to a masquerade ball aboard a chartered train. But while they provide the food booze and music a knife-wielding psycho intent on revenge for a sick joke four years earlier provides the deadly entertainment...
The Mark Of Zorro (Dir. Rouben Mamoulian 1940): This swashbuckling remake of the silent classic stars Tyrone Power as the dashing masked avenger who single-handedly saves Los Angeles from Spanish despots. Don Diego Vega (Power) is summoned home from his elite training corps in Spain to California where he finds his father the Alcade deposed and the people living in tyranny. Disguised as Zorro a sword-wielding mystery man dressed in black he works to restore his father to
Train them! Excite them! Arm them!...Then turn them loose on the Nazis! Atten-hut! Twelve jailbirds will earn their freedom... if they survive a suicide mission against the Nazi brass. Tough-as-nails Lee Marvin leads a nothing-to-lose convict squad in this all-time action trendsetter. They don't make 'em like this anymore!
A terrifying movie from notorious shock horror director Joe Castro... After brutally killing his mother and seriously injuring his father Gilbert is sent to a maximum security sanitarium for the rest of his days. The neighbourhood begins to get back to normal but not for long.... Brutally killing three orderlies Gilbert escapes and return with revenge on his mind. It's a race against time... the only person that can get through to Gilbert is his sister Janet. Will she be able to stop him or will she just become another of his victims?
A special team is assigned to investigate a mysterious Hong Kong forging operation. Undercover cop Warren Lee infiltrates the villainous gang but gets corrupted by sex and greed. This means the only hope of bringing the forgers to justice lies in the hands of ninja master Jason Hart (Richard Harrison) and his super racing motorbike...
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