12 Angry Men (1957)

If you long for the halcyon days of good scriptwriting -- when Alfred Hitchcock and Rod Serling held sway -- then 12 Angry Men should do the trick. In a court of law, a jury of 12 varied personalities -- some disaffected, some cranky, but all men -- are assembled to determine the guilt or innocence of the accused, an 18-year-old. It seems like an open-and-shut case for the death penalty, at least to 11 of the jurors. But there is one holdout. He is cajoled and ridiculed but his conscience won't be moved. What are 11 men to do esp. since dinner is waiting on the table for them if and when they get home? How emotional can things get in one cramped room without AC? 12 Angry Men is some of the tightest moral-conscience writing of the 1940s and 50s and it features Jack Klugman, Henry Fonda, E.G. Marshall, and more. Don't miss this classic! 4.5 stars.