# Movies in the style of "12 Angry Men" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 29, 2007, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-the-style-of-12-angry-men/397961 "2007-03-29T12:56:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-the-style-of-12-angry-men/397961/21 "2007-03-29T16:39:00Z")
[QUOTE=Zeldar] You’ll have to let _My Dinner With Andre_ work on you a little, as it’s not as dramatic as 12AM. Still an engaging piece of movie-making. [/QUOTE] Well, yeah, but the action figures are more fun than the movie. How about **Jerry and Tom**? It’s got some other sequences and, of course, it takes place over many years, but the interaction between Mantegna and Rockwell is compelling. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-the-style-of-12-angry-men/397961/22 "2007-03-29T16:54:59Z")
[Deterrence](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0158583/). The pressures of an election night evolve into…well, a lot more, I don’t want to spoil anything. It all takes place inside a diner over the course of one night. I’ll second _The Lion in Winter_. Sailboat ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-the-style-of-12-angry-men/397961/23 "2007-03-29T16:56:09Z")
**The Bitter Tears of Petra van Kant** is high on melodrama and in German, but features a phenomenal all-female cast in a single setting. ---
**Author:** ![percussion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/43a26b/32.png) [@percussion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/percussion)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-the-style-of-12-angry-men/397961/24 "2007-03-29T17:16:25Z")
Not really close at all but in terms of confined time frame “Panic Room” ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-the-style-of-12-angry-men/397961/25 "2007-03-29T17:31:01Z")
I haven’t seen the movie version of _Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf_, but I suspect it would qualify. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-the-style-of-12-angry-men/397961/26 "2007-03-29T17:46:34Z")
I know you’re not specifically asking for Spencer Tracy courtroom dramas, but these just happen to be: **INHERIT THE WIND** - Tracy, Fredric March, Gene Kelly, Harry Morgan, and several good supporting actors in a movie with some great dialogue and courtroom moments. Tracy/Darrow/Drummond’s cross examination of March/Bryan/Brady is a scene where even the silent characters are doing some great acting. (Note if you’ve never seen it: it’s certainly inspired by the Scopes trial of course and some of the court scenes are almost verbatim, but outside the courtroom it’s more fictitious than many realize- currently on [Broadway with Christopher Plummer & Brian Dennehy](http://inheritthewindonbroadway.com/). **Judgment at Nuremberg** - one of the best movies about ethics ever written or filmed (and the first time many filmgoers ever saw the concentration camp footage that most of us today can’t even remember the first time we saw- remember this when watching it as it makes it more powerful). Tracy & the incredible Burt Lancaster head an all star cast {Maximilian “Damn he was fine” Schell, Judy Garland, Montgomery Clift, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich, others- supporting cast includes William Shatner & Werner Klemperer) in a film about the trial of four Nazi judges. Lancaster’s character is a legendary German judge renowned for his brilliance and fairness and contributions to international law who becomes one of Hitler’s willing executioners even though he despised the Nazi party; it presents some real “talky” considerations. Lancaster’s soliloquy/testimony at the end is one of the great orations in movie history and Dietrich’s chemistry with Tracy is touching and odd. One of the few movies I give an easy five stars too- blows _Twelve Angry Men_ (currently touring in [a production](http://www.theatreinchicago.com/playdetail.php?playID=829) with George “NORM!” Wendt and Richard “Johnboy” Thomas, incidentally) away. ---
**Author:** ![el\_nombre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9dc877/32.png) [@el\_nombre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/el_nombre)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-the-style-of-12-angry-men/397961/27 "2007-03-29T17:53:53Z")
Misery…well not really, but kinda ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-the-style-of-12-angry-men/397961/28 "2007-03-29T17:58:46Z")
Oh, and _On Golden Pond_ of course (the Fonda/Fonda/Hepburn version, not the Plummer/Andrews version which was dreadful). It’s mostly an old couple talking, an old couple and their daughter/her boyfriend/his son talking, an old couple and their sort-of-step adolescent grandson talking, then the old couple talking. Hysterically funny in parts, very touching, none of the characters are perfect or total bastards, and the fact Henry Fonda was dying when the Oscars were awarded has absolutely nothing to do with his win for the movie- he was born to grow old and play Norman Thayer, from “Who the hell’s in this picture!” to “Yeah, a bear came along and ate a couple of old lesbians just last month” to “How’d I look [in my coffin]?”. If you haven’t seen it, it’s one of those films EVERYONE should see, the real Lion in Winter. BTW, your best bet for the type of movie you’re looking for is almost always going to be movies made from (non musical) stage plays. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-the-style-of-12-angry-men/397961/29 "2007-03-29T18:01:02Z")
Good ones, **Sampiro**. I agree with everything in your critiques. More good courtroom dramas: _Witness For The Prosecution_, starring the marvelous Charles Laughton. Also with Marlene Dieterich, Elsa Lanchester, and Tyrone Power. Charles Laughton, the unabashed old bastard of a scene-stealer, is a delight in this movie, as he interacts with his nurse, other attorneys, the judge, the accused, and the witnesses. It’s based on a great Agatha Christie story. _Anatomy of a Murder_, with James Stewart, George C. Scott, and Lee Remick. One of my favorite courtroom dramas, and I especially like the judge, who I believe is portrayed by a real-life judge. Lots of good actors talking in many one-on-one scenes and also _ensemble_ in the courtroom, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-the-style-of-12-angry-men/397961/30 "2007-03-29T19:08:51Z")
Well, there’s _Cube_, which takes place in a series of near-identical rooms, distinguished only by colour and the occasional deathtrap. Also, _Nothing_, which takes place in a house in the midst of oblivion. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-the-style-of-12-angry-men/397961/31 "2007-03-29T19:52:35Z")
\*My Dinner With Andre Mindwalk The Wife\* ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-the-style-of-12-angry-men/397961/32 "2007-03-29T21:37:56Z")
_The Old Settler_, which was shown on PBS, with Phylicia Rashad and Debbie Allen (sisters in real life) would fit the bill, I think. Phylicia is the more experienced actor (although she got on my nerves a bit in \*both \* the series in which she played Bill Cosby’s wife), Debbie wasn’t half bad. And, yes, just as **Sampiro** said, it was adapted from a play. [The Old Settler](http://www.pbs.org/hollywoodpresents/theoldsettler/about/) ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-the-style-of-12-angry-men/397961/33 "2007-03-29T22:32:02Z")
**Abandon Ship** with Tyrone Power Who should the captain toss out of the lifeboat when the going gets rough. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-the-style-of-12-angry-men/397961/34 "2007-03-29T22:58:30Z")
[_ **Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean** _](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083745/) ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-the-style-of-12-angry-men/397961/35 "2007-03-29T23:21:42Z")
There’s always _The Petrified Forest_. ---
**Author:** ![wnorthr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecccb3/32.png) [@wnorthr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wnorthr)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2007, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-the-style-of-12-angry-men/397961/36 "2007-03-30T00:34:22Z")
Glengarry Glen Ross ---
**Author:** ![St.Urho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e7dd6/32.png) [@St.Urho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/St.Urho)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2007, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-the-style-of-12-angry-men/397961/37 "2007-03-30T01:58:53Z")
[QUOTE=teela brown] _Anatomy of a Murder_, with James Stewart, George C. Scott, and Lee Remick. One of my favorite courtroom dramas, and I especially like the judge, who I believe is portrayed by a real-life judge. Lots of good actors talking in many one-on-one scenes and also _ensemble_ in the courtroom, of course. [/QUOTE] I was going to mention this, too. I’ll just add that it was filmed in my hometown. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2007, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-the-style-of-12-angry-men/397961/38 "2007-03-30T05:12:43Z")
[_The Interview_](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0120714/), an Australian film starring Hugo Weaving as a man who is dragged from his bed to a police station and interrogated by a police detective. The majority of the film is the interaction between these two characters and the audience has to figure out who is the good guy and who is the bad guy. If after seeing the _Matrix_ films, you weren’t sure if Hugo Weaving is a great actor, see this film. ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2007, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-the-style-of-12-angry-men/397961/39 "2007-03-30T05:46:58Z")
How about a musical? **1776** comes pretty close to what you describe. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2007, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-the-style-of-12-angry-men/397961/40 "2007-03-30T09:54:31Z")
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