Twelve Angry Men

Twelve Angry Men is drama concerning a jury of a homicide trial. It was broadcast initially as a television play in 1954, the following year it was first adapted for the stage, and was made into a highly successful film in 1957. Since then it has been adapted, remade, and homaged numerous times.

Description

The play concerns the deliberations of a jury of a homicide trial. At the beginning, they have a nearly unanimous decision of guilty, with a single dissenter of not-guilty, who throughout the play sows a seed of reasonable doubt. It was first made as a 1954 teleplay by Reginald Rose for the Studio One anthology television series. Initially staged as a CBS live production on 20 September 1954. The drama was later rewritten for the stage in 1955 under the same title.

Stage

Rose wrote several stage adaptations of the story. In 1964, Leo Genn appeared in the play on the London stage. In other theatrical adaptations in which female actors are cast, the play is retitled 12 Angry Jurors, 12 Angry Men and Women or 12 Angry Women^[1][2].

In 2004, the Roundabout Theatre Company presented a Broadway production of the play, starring Boyd Gaines as a more combative Juror 8, with James Rebhorn (No. 4), Philip Bosco (No. 3), and Robert Prosky as the voice of the judge. In 2007, 12 Angry Men ran on a national theatre tour with Richard Thomas and George Wendt starring as Jurors No. 8 and No. 1, respectively. The 2008 tour does not include Wendt but features another popular television personality, Kevin Dobson of Kojak and Knots Landing, as Juror 10^[3].

Films

It was rewritten again in 1957 as a feature film, 12 Angry Men which Sidney Lumet directed, and starred Henry Fonda that was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Writing of Adapted Screenplay.

In 1963, the German Television Channel ZDF produced a film adaption under the title "Die 12 Geschworenen".

Indian director Basu Chatterjee remade it as Ek Ruka Hua Faisla in 1986.

In 2007, Russian film director Nikita Mikhalkov completed 12, his remake. The jury of the 64th Venice Film Festival assigned its special prize to this remake "to acknowledge the consistent brilliance of Nikita Mikhalkov's body of work."^[4]

The teleplay was made as a Kannada drama titled as 'Aa Mukhagalu', staged in the early 1980s and as a 'Dashamukha' in 2012.

Television

'12 Angry Men' was remade for television in 1997. Directed by William Friedkin, the remake stars George C. Scott, James Gandolfini, Tony Danza, William Petersen, Ossie Davis, Hume Cronyn, Courtney B. Vance, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Mykelti Williamson, Edward James Olmos, Dorian Harewood, and Jack Lemmon. In this production, the judge is a woman and four of the jurors are black, most of the action and dialogue of the film are identical to the original. Modernizations include a prohibition on smoking in the jury room, the changing of references to income and pop culture figures, more dialogue relating to race, and occasional profanity.

Casts

Homages

Many television series have episodes based on the teleplay. These include Hancock's Half Hour,^[5] Picket Fences, Perfect Strangers, Family Matters, The Dead Zone, Early Edition, The Odd Couple, King of the Hill, Matlock, 7th Heaven, Veronica Mars, Monk, Hey Arnold!, Peep Show (TV series), My Wife and Kids, and The Simpsons.

• In The Odd Couple, Oscar Madison, who served on a similar type of jury, was played by Jack Klugman, who played Juror 5 in the 1957 film. Further Odd Couple parallels to the film include John Fiedler (who featured as Oscar's friend in the film) and the fact that Felix takes the role of Juror No. 8 which Jack Lemmon (Felix in the film) plays in the 1997 version.

• In the fifth season Happy Days episode "Fonzie for the Defense", Howard and Fonzie are called up for jury duty. The case involves a black biker who is accused of stealing an old lady's purse, and seems to be a very open-and-shut case. Fonzie, however, is the only one who is certain that the young man is "not guilty-amundo", and must convince the rest of the jury. Also in reference to the teleplay was when Howard backs up Fonzie's not guilty vote on the basis that he is not going to send a man to prison without deliberating on the case and determining the defendant was indeed guilty.

• In the first season All in the Family episode "Edith Has Jury Duty", Edith is a member of a jury deliberating a murder trial. Similar to the teleplay: the weapon used was a knife, and the accused was a Puerto Rican man. Edith was the one dissenting juror of a guilty verdict. At the end of the episode, it was revealed that someone else eventually broke down and admitted to the crime. As with many episodes, this one deals with the issue of racism and prejudice.

• In the 1993 Matlock episode "The Juror", Matlock was initially the lone juror voting "not guilty" and had to convince the others, one by one, with many personality conflicts erupting.

• In the 1994 Simpsons episode "The Boy Who Knew Too Much", Homer Simpson intentionally goes against the rest of jury and votes "not guilty" so that he is sequestered at a hotel with free room service and cable television.

• In the first season episode of Hey Arnold! called "False Alarm", Arnold, Gerald, Helga, Phoebe, Harold, and Curly are a jury, and must reach a verdict over Eugene pulling a false alarm in school. Arnold is similar to Juror 8, and Curly is similar to Juror 3.

• In a Season 8 episode of Family Matters called "The Jury", Steve Urkel is the lone juror who believes the defendant is innocent of robbing a jewelry store, despite what appears to be clear videotape evidence of the defendant's guilt. But only Steve discovers something surprising in that very tape that proves the defendant is innocent.

• In a Season 3 episode of My Wife and Kids called "Jury Duty", Michael and Jay are both called for jury duty and wind up on the same case. Michael declares it's an open and shut case, while Jay demurs. It turns out that she's the only person on the jury who believes the defendant is not guilty.

• In a 2000 episode of 7th Heaven – "Twelve Angry People" from Season 4 – the Rev. Eric Camden is the lone juror who believes the defendant is guilty and must convince the other jurors of his guilt (the complete opposite of the teleplay's plot). This adaptation also deals with racism in the criminal justice system and the jury's initial willingness to invoke jury nullification in response both to that racism and a police corruption scandal that rocked Glen Oak, the fictitious California town where the series was set.

• An episode of the TV series Monk, "Mr. Monk Gets Jury Duty", heavily spoofs the original 12 Angry Men teleplay. In this episode, the jury is presiding over the case of a man accused of stabbing another guy out to make a bank deposit. Many of the jurors analogue a 12 Angry Men juror in some way or form:
  • Adrian Monk (#11) is the initial "not guilty" holdout, much like Juror No. 8 in the teleplay.
  • Patel (#2) is a parallel to Juror No. 11 (both are immigrants proud to be in America).
  • One juror is given the name Mr. Cobb, a tribute to Lee J. Cobb (the actor playing Juror No. 3 in the 1957 12 Angry Men), both of whom are the last people to vote "guilty".
  • The episode's sports fan juror (#10) parallels the teleplay's Juror No. 7, and both make baseball references.
  • Both include a single initial "not guilty" vote and the same type of blade used to commit both crimes.
  • A panning shot in the episode of the jury room is supposed to mimic a similar scene in the 1957 movie.

References

External links

• Twelve Angry Men at the Internet Broadway Database
• Twelve Angry Men (teleplay) at the Internet Movie Database
• 12 Angry Men (1957 film) at the Internet Movie Database
• 12 Angry Men at the Internet Movie Database
• 12 (Mikhalkov) at the Internet Movie Database