BEST SIDNEY LUMET MOVIES
“12 Angry Men” (1957) Lumet moved from directing television dramas to guiding theatrical films with this searing jury-deliberation drama (adapted, ironically, from a TV play) produced by principal star Henry Fonda and being shown Saturday, Feb. 27, on Turner Classic Movies.
“Long Day’s Journey Into Night” (1962) Tackling a (or, to some people, “the”) defining Eugene O’Neill work was a brave move for someone still young in his moviemaking, but Lumet drew indelible performances from Katharine Hepburn and Jason Robards.
“Fail-Safe” (1964) Fonda worked with Lumet again by playing the U.S. president in this tense drama sparked by a pending, erroneously ordered nuclear attack on Moscow. Walter Matthau, Fritz Weaver and Larry Hagman also are cast standouts.
“The Pawnbroker” (1964) Rod Steiger is brilliant under Lumet’s direction as a concentrationcamp survivor who continues to be haunted by his wartime experiences.
“The Hill” (1965) In the first of the multiple movies he made with Lumet, Sean Connery took a very effective break from the world of Agent 007 as an incarcerated British soldier subjected to grueling punishment in an intense heat that the viewer also ends up feeling.
“The Group” (1966) Lumet’s take on Mary McCarthy’s novel is soap opera of a very high grade, with Candice Bergen, Joan Hackett and Jessica Walter among those depicting the lives and loves of students at a private school pre-World War II.
“The Offence” (1973) A gritty melodrama he got financed in exchange for returning as James Bond in “Diamonds Are Forever,” Connery excels for Lumet as a dispirited British police detective who reaches the end of his rope during his questioning of an alleged child molester.
“Serpico” (1973) A run of holiday-season hits for Lumet over several consecutive years began with the true story of an honest New York police detective (superbly played by Al Pacino) who risked his life by turning informant on corrupt peers.
“Murder on the Orient Express” (1974) Lumet’s wonderfully stylish version of the Agatha Christie mystery is – just as the ads promised – “the who’s who in the whodunit,” encompassing everyone from Albert Finney (as master sleuth Hercule Poirot) and Connery to Lauren Bacall and Oscar winner Ingrid Bergman.
“Dog Day Afternoon” (1975) Pacino and Lumet collaborated on another fact-based tale, the saga of a bank robbery gone extremely awry ... with surprises about the reason behind the attempted heist eventually emerging.
“Network” (1976) Fueled by Paddy Chayefsky’s take-no-prisoners script, the Lumet-directed indictment of the TV-news business (which time has made seem less like satire) was rewarded with Academy Awards for the writer and performers Peter Finch (posthumously), Faye Dunaway and Beatrice Straight.
“Prince of the City” (1981) Lumet revisited the theme of an honest cop turned whistleblower with this long but engrossing drama, another true story with marvelous acting by Treat Williams and a supporting cast including Jerry Orbach and Bob Balaban.
“The Verdict” (1982) Paul Newman gives arguably his career-high performance for Lumet as a downtrodden lawyer given a chance at personal and professional redemption by a case he decides to try rather than settle.