April 10, 1957: The film 12 Angry Men premieres, directed by Sidney Lumet, based on the made-for-TV play by Reginald Rose. (The film's title has always included the numeral 12, without spelling out the word "Twelve.")
The play had aired as part of the CBS anthology series Studio One on September 20, 1954, and was acted out live. Robert Cummings, who had just come off the Alfred Hitchcock film Dial M for Murder, played Juror #8, the only one who starts out with any doubts. He later started billing himself as "Bob," and starred in the sitcom The Bob Cummings Show, sometimes titled Love That Bob! in syndication. Franchot Tone, an older actor known for playing gentlemanly types, was cast against type as Juror #3, the play's main antagonist.
The 12 men are a jury, at the New York County Courthouse in Lower Manhattan, deciding the case of an 18-year-old man, played by John Savoca, who lived with his father, accused of killing the father after years of abuse.
Rudy Bond plays the Judge, who reminds the jury that their verdict must be unanimous, or the case will have to be tried all over again; that if there is any "reasonable doubt" as to the defendant's guilt, they must find him Not Guilty; and that, if they find him Guilty, the penalty is death by execution -- which, in the State of New York at that time, meant the electric chair. And these were the men who had to decide his fate:
* Juror #1 (played by Martin Balsam, later to win a Tony and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar): The jury foreman; a calm and methodical assistant high school football coach.
* #2 (John Fiedler): A meek and unpretentious bank teller who is easily flustered, but eventually stands up for himself.
* #3 (Lee J. Cobb, known for playing Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman and Johnny Friendly in On the Waterfront): A hot-tempered owner of an answering service, who is estranged from his son.
* #4 (E.G. Marshall, later to play a District Attorney on the TV series The Defenders): An unflappable, conscientious, and analytical stockbroker who is concerned only with facts, not opinions.
* #5 (Jack Klugman, later to play Oscar Madison on The Odd Couple and, more pertinent here, a medical examiner on Quincy, M.E.): The youngest juror, a fan of the Baltimore Orioles baseball team, who grew up in a violent slum, and is sensitive to bigotry towards "slum kids" like the defendant.
* #6 (Edward Binns): A tough but principled and courteous house painter who stands up to others, especially over the elderly being verbally abused.
* #7 (Jack Warden, later to star in the TV version of The Bad News Bears): A wisecracking salesman, who is eager to get out, because he has tickets to the New York Yankees' game that night.
* #8 (Henry Fonda, aside from Cobb the only castmember who was already a "big name"): An architect, who mentions having 3 children.
* #9 (Joseph Sweeney, then 72 years old but looking even older, the only actor from the 1954 teleplay to reprise his role): Easily the oldest juror, to whom age has granted wisdom, and picked up on the witnesses' behaviors and their possible motivations.
* #10 (Ed Begley, who later won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, and the father of actor Ed Begley Jr.): A garage owner who is unafraid to voice his opinions, including bigoted ones.
* #11 (George Voskovec, a Czech immigrant): A polite European watchmaker and naturalized American citizen, who demonstrates strong respect for democratic values, such as due process.
* #12 (Robert Webber): An indecisive and easily distracted advertising executive.
The foreman immediately polls the jurors, and the vote is Guilty 11, Not Guilty 1. Only #8 votes to acquit, because he has doubts, and he doesn't want a man (especially one who is only 18) to die when there's doubt as to his guilt. Some of the others mock him for this, saying the case is open-and-shut.
He takes this for a little while, and asks for another vote, which he says will stay out of: If it's 11-0 Guilty, he'll go along. The vote is 10-1, with the elderly #9 voting Not Guilty, not because he's now sure of innocence, but because he respects #8's motives, and agrees there should be more discussion. The hardliners, #s 3 and 10, are upset; while #7 just wants to make his game. That becomes academic, as it starts to rain, so the game is postponed. But the thunder and lightning end up being matched by the stormy atmosphere in the jury room.
A neighbor testified to witnessing the defendant stab his father, from her window, through the windows of a passing elevated train. #8 argues that the noise of the passing train would have obscured everything the witness claimed to have overheard. This causes #s 5 and 11 to accept that the doubt is more than reasonable, and to change their votes: It's now 8-4 Guilty.
Another witness testified that he heard the defendant threaten to kill his father, heard the father's body hit the floor, ran to his door, and saw the defendant running downstairs. But the witness walked with a limp, and, after looking at a diagram of the witness's apartment and conducting an experiment, the jurors determine that it is impossible he could have made it to the door in time. #3, infuriated, argues with and tries to attack #8, yelling a death threat, and it takes 3 jurors to physically restrain him. Knowing that anyone could be driven by anger to say, "I'll kill you!", and having seen the logistics of the disabled witness' apartment, #s 2 and 6 change their votes. The jury is now evenly split, 6-6.
A point is made that the defendant was noticeably shorter than his father. #5, who grew up in a slum, and had seen a switchblade knife used before, demonstrates that these facts made it all but impossible for the defendant to have killed the father with the knife that the prosecution claimed was the murder weapon: If that was the right weapon, the right way to kill with it would have been to stab the target in the abdomen, taking the least amount of time to wound the target, and causing the most blood loss. But the fatal would was high in the chest, which would have required the killer to turn the knife in his hand, and then raise his hand. Thus, the father would have had time to stop the son from doing it. #s 1, 7 and 12 change their votes: It's now 9-3 Not Guilty.
One of the remaining Guilty voters is #4. He believes that, in spite of the passing train, the woman in the apartment across the street is still a reliable witness. This causes #12 to switch back, and it's 8-4 Not Guilty.
But #9, the old man, sees #4 remove his glasses, and rub the impressions the glasses made on his nose. #9 says that the witness in question, though she did not wear glasses in court, did the same rubbing while on the witness stand, meaning that she wore glasses.
This causes #8 to remember that the witness claimed she was trying to sleep when she saw the murder. This means she wouldn't have had her glasses on, and couldn't possibly have made out the face of the killer with any accuracy. This causes the previously adamant #4 to accept the available facts, and change his vote. #s 10 and 12 do the same. It's now 11-1 Not Guilty, and only #3 remains.
But it's going to be a hung jury, because #3 is still completely convinced of the son's guilt. He goes on a rant about rotten kids. (This was the era of Blackboard Jungle, Rebel Without a Cause, and the young Elvis Presley.) He takes a picture out of his wallet, showing his own son, about the same age, talks of their estrangement, and gets so angry that he tears the picture up. Seeing that he has symbolically "killed" the image of his son, he breaks down in tears, realizes his faulty logic, and makes it a unanimous Not Guilty vote.
Only at the end do we learn the names of any of the jurors: #9 introduces himself to #8 as McCardle, and #8 tells #9 his name is Davis.
Joseph Sweeney died in 1963, Ed Begley Sr. in 1970, Lee J. Cobb in 1976, George Voskovec in 1981, Henry Fonda and Rudy Bond (the judge) in 1982, Robert Webber in 1989, Edward Binns in 1990, Martin Balsam in 1996, E.G. Marshall in 1998, John Fiedler in 2005, and Jack Warden in 2006. Jack Klugman was the last survivor of the actors who played the jurors, living until 2012. He outlived John Savoca, who played the defendant at age 17, by 5 years.
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April 10, 1957 was a Wednesday. The baseball season was 5 days away from starting -- so the Yankees being rained out did not reflect reality, at least not on this day.
Football was out of season. The NBA Finals were between Games 5 and 6, and the Boston Celtics would beat the St. Louis Hawks in 7 games. And the Stanley Cup Finals were between Games 2 and 3, and the Montreal Canadiens would beat the Boston Bruins in 5 games. So there were no scores on this historic day.
