Kelowna Daily Courier

TOP 10 MOVIES

BY JAY BOBBIN

“The Verdict” (1982): Paul Newman gave arguably his career-best performance for director Lumet as a downtrodden lawyer given a chance at personal and professional redemption by a case he decides to try rather than settle.

“Prince of the City” (1981): Lumet revisited the theme of an honest cop turned whistleblower with this long but engrossing drama, a true story with marvelous acting by Treat Williams and a supporting cast including Jerry Orbach and Bob Balaban.

“Network” (1976): Fueled by Paddy Chayefsky’s take-no-prisoners script, this Lumetdirected indictment of the television business was rewarded with Academy Awards for the writer and performers Peter Finch (posthumously), Faye Dunaway and Beatrice Straight.

“Dog Day Afternoon” (1975): Al Pacino and Lumet reunited 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.

“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,” encompasses everyone from Albert Finney (as master sleuth Hercule Poirot) and Sean Connery to Lauren Bacall and Oscar winner Ingrid Bergman.

“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.

“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.

“Fail-Safe” (1964): Henry 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.

“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.

MOVIE REVIEW

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2022-01-28T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-01-28T08:00:00.0000000Z

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