CATCH A CLASSIC
Jury Duty
TCM, Beginning at 7 p.m.
In real life, many of us may grumble a bit when called upon to serve on jury duty and might find the process dull. But in the world of the movies, stories and scenes focused on juries can offer plenty of dramatic excitement and suspense, as evidenced in tonight’s double feature on Turner Classic Movies. First up is the most famous film focused on a jury: the 1957 Best Picture
Oscar-nominated 12 Angry Men (pictured). Best Director nominee Sidney Lumet’s tense courtroom drama takes us into the deliberations of jury members (given the era, the jury is composed entirely of 12 white men) in a New York City murder trial. When Juror 8 (Henry Fonda, also a producer) is initially the only one who expresses a skeptical caution, the others are frustrated even as they are forced to more carefully consider the evidence before jumping to a hasty verdict. Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley, E.G. Marshall and Jack Warden co-star. Second on tonight’s double bill is Perfect Strangers (1950), a romantic drama starring Ginger Rogers and Dennis Morgan as a divorcee and a married man who fall in love while serving on a sequestered jury during a murder trial.