Anniversary of Sidney Lumet's debut film
On April 10, 1957, Sidney Lumet's film "12 Angry Men" was released on the screens of US cinemas.
Initially, the TV show "12 angry men", which was an episode of the TV almanac "The First Studio", aired on the American CBS television channel from 1948 to 1958, appeared on TV screens on September 20, 1954. The author of the script of this TV show was Reginald Rose, who embodied in this scenario his experience of participating in a court hearing as a juror. The director of the TV show was 34-year-old Franklin J. Scheffner, who was awarded an Emmy Television Award for this production. The success of the TV play prompted Reginald Rose to remake the script into a play, the performances of which were equally successful on the theater stages of America.
From the moment of the first broadcast of the TV play, the then American film star Henry Fonda was fired up with the idea of making a film based on the script of Reginald Rose. Fonda had previously secured the promise of the United Artists (UA) film company to ensure the distribution of the future film, after which he offered Reginald Rose to become his co-producer. Fonda and Rose together collected a budget of 350 thousand dollars (equivalent to the current 3.65 million dollars, mere pennies by the standards of modern cinema!) and they decided to work for free.
Henry Fonda hired 32-year-old Sidney Lumet to direct the upcoming film. Lumet's choice for the role of director was due to the following circumstances: first, by that time he had already had 10 years of experience directing very successful TV movies and TV series; second, he had a reputation for strictly adhering to the schedule and budget. In the conditions of budget scarcity, the second became the main motive for attracting Sidney Lumet. And this feature of Sidney Lumet played a very important role: the film was shot in less than three weeks.
Thus, the film "12 Angry Men" became the debut feature film in the career of Sidney Lumet as a film director and the debut of Henry Fonda as a producer. And for both, the "first pancake" almost became a bit tricky.
The fact is that, according to Henry Fonda's memoirs, the UA approach deprived the film of any chance of financial success. Firstly, the film company launched a screening of the film during Easter week, when the public traditionally has other interests. Secondly, UA placed it in cinemas too big for a "small" movie. The chamber nature of the film does not imply its perception by huge audiences. When the audience, having come to the hall with half a thousand seats, sees several dozen spectators besides themselves, they feel uncomfortable. As a result, the film by Sidney Lumet and Henry Fonda practically failed at the box office: the box office in the United States did not exceed half of the funds spent on its creation (Looking ahead, I note that the film collected about one million dollars abroad, which allowed to recoup the costs) and was removed from the screens. And, finally, thirdly, Fonda noted as a flaw of the UA that after the serious success of the picture at the festival venues, the UA did not resume its demonstration. After that, Henry Fonda vowed never to produce films.
And the success was really serious. Two months after the premiere in the United States, Sidney Lumet's film "12 Angry Men" was presented at the Berlin International Film Festival. The jury of the film festival, chaired by American film critic Jay Carmody, awarded the film the main prize - the Golden Bear. In fairness, I should note that Lumet's film had no serious competitors at this festival. A month later, the film "12 Angry Men" was awarded a Special Mention (the second most important award) at the Locarno International Film Festival.
In early 1958, Sidney Lumet's film "12 Angry Men" received 4 Golden Globe Award nominations, including in the most important categories of Best Motion Picture - Drama and Best Director. In all four nominations, Lumet's picture lost to David Lean's cinematic masterpiece "The Bridge on the River Kwai". Almost the same situation was repeated a little later, when the film "12 Angry Men" received three Oscar nominations, including the most important ones - Best Film and Best Director. And again, the road to the award for Sidney Lumet's film was blocked by "The Bridge on the River Kwai".
In the same 1958 film "12 Angry Men" received two nominations from the British Film Academy, only Henry Fonda received the BAFTA Award as the Best Actor. The film itself in the nomination of the Best Film from any Source again lost to the picture of David Lean. Although "The Bridge on the River Kwai" won the award in the Best British Film category. In the company of "relative losers" there were also such movies as "Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut (A Man Escaped)" by Robert Bresson, "Pather Panchali: Song of the Little Road" by Satyajit Rai, "Paths of Glory" by Stanley Kubrick. Finally, in 1960, Sidney Lumet's film "12 Angry Men" won the Danish Bodil Award as the Best American Film.
Modern moviegoers around the world rated Sidney Lumet's film "12 Angry Men" immeasurably higher than American moviegoers of the late 50s of the last century. After several decades, the film has not only not lost its relevance, but, on the contrary, has become in demand almost everywhere. As evidenced by the mass of remakes of this picture made in different countries. Even Nikita Sergeyevich Mikhalkov integrated himself into the group of remake creators, having shot the picture "12" in 2007. According to the IMDB and Kinopoisk sites, 87% of users of these sites gave the film ratings from 8 to 10. And 35% of users gave the film the highest ratings - "tens".
With that said, the rating of Sidney Lumet's film "12 Angry Men" according to FilmGourmand version was 10.388, thanks to which it took 24th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
