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#061 Sidney Lumet: 12 Angry Men vs. Gloria w/ guest Kyle Forsyth

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Download MP3 In today's episode Nate and Austin compare Sidney Lumet's best and worst rated films, 12 Angry Men (1957) and Gloria (1999), respectively. Nate has beef with Sharon Stone, Austin leaves the country, and Kyle keeps getting interrupting by a barking dog. Check back next Sunday at 7pm PST where we will compare John Boorman's Deliverance (1972) and The Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), his best and worst rated films.
Also check out this interview with Francis Ford Coppola about The Godfather: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrMXC_X2HU8

Gloria Notes

Worst Rated

PLOT: A street-wise, middle-aged moll named Gloria stands up against the mobs, which is complicated by a six-year-old urchin with a will of his own who she reluctantly takes under her wing after his family has been gunned down.
  • Ratings: IMDb 5.1 | RT 17% C / 30% A
  • Released: 1999
  • Director: Sidney Lumet
  • Writer(s): John Cassevetes (1980 screenplay), Steve Antin (screenplay)
  • Cinematographer: David Watkin (Out of Africa, Chariots of Fire, Moonstruck)
  • Notable actors: Sharon Stone, Jean-Luke Figueroa, Jeremy Northam, Cathy Moriarty, George C. Scott, Mike Starr, Bonnie Bedelia, Barry McEvoy, Bobby Cannavale
  • Budget: $30 million
  • Box office: $4.1 million
  • Fun Facts:
    • When asked why he decided to direct this film, Sidney Lumet frankly replied that he liked to work all the time, and if he couldn't find a good script he'd take a fair one.
    • This was George C. Scott's final film before his death on September 22, 1999 at the age of 71.

12 Angry Men Notes

Best Rated

PLOT: A jury holdout attempts to prevent a miscarriage of justice by forcing his colleagues to reconsider the evidence.
  • Ratings: IMDb 8.9 | RT 100% C / 97% A
  • Released: 1957
  • Director: Sidney Lumet
  • Writer(s): Reginald Rose (story), Reginald Rose (screenplay)
  • Cinematographer: Boris Kaufman (On the Waterfront, Splendor in the Grass)
  • Notable actors: Martin Balsam, John Fiedler, Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, Edward Binns, Jack Warden, Henry Fonda, Joseph Sweeney, Ed Begley, George Voskovec, Robert Webber
  • Budget: $340 thousand (equivalent to $2.9 million in 2016)
  • Box office: $1 million (rentals)
  • Fun Facts:
    • At the beginning of the film, the cameras are all positioned above eye level and mounted with wide-angle lenses to give the appearance of greater distance between the subjects. As the film progresses the cameras slip down to eye level. By the end of the film, nearly all of it is shot below eye level, in close-up and with telephoto lenses to increase the encroaching sense of claustrophobia.
    • Sidney Lumet had the actors all stay in the same room for hours on end and do their lines over and over without filming them. This was to give them a real taste of what it would be like to be cooped up in a room with the same people.
    • Because the film failed to make a profit, Henry Fonda never received his deferred salary. Despite this setback, he always regarded this film as one of the three best he ever made, the other two being The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and The Ox-Bow Incident (1943).
    • Henry Fonda disliked watching himself on film, so he did not watch the whole film in the screening room. However, before he walked out he said quietly to director Sidney Lumet, "Sidney, it's magnificent."
    • The ethnic background of the teenaged suspect was deliberately left unstated. For the purposes of the film, the important facts were that he was not of Northern European ancestry, and that prejudice (or lack of it) from some jurors would be a major part of the deliberation process.
    • Henry Fonda immediately complained to Sidney Lumet about the cheap backdrops outside the jury room windows when he walked on set. "They look like shit. Hitch had great backdrops, you could walk right in them," said Fonda, referring to the previous film he made with Alfred Hitchcock, The Wrong Man (1956). Lumet assured him that director of photography Boris Kaufman had a plan to make them work.
    • The movie is commonly used in business schools and workshops to illustrate team dynamics and conflict resolution techniques.
    • With the death of Jack Klugman (Juror #5) on December 24, 2012, none of the 12 stars are still alive.
    • Shot in a total of 365 separate takes.
Intro music: Calm The Fuck Down - Broke For Free / CC BY 3.0
 

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