Known for Directing
Sidney Lumet (June 25, 1924 – April 9, 2011) was an American director, producer and screenwriter with over 50 films to his name. He was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Director for 12 Angry Men (1957), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Network (1976) and The Verdict (1982). He did not win an individual Academy Award, although he did receive an Academy Honorary Award and 14 of his films were nominated for various Oscars, such as Network, which was nominated for 10, winning 4. The Encyclopedia of Hollywood states that Lumet was one of the most prolific directors of the modern era, making more than one movie per year on average since his directorial debut in 1957. He was noted by Turner Classic Movies for his "strong direction of actors", "vigorous storytelling" and the "social realism" in his best work. Film critic Roger Ebert described him as having been "one of the finest craftsmen and warmest humanitarians among all film directors." Lumet was also known as an "actor's director," having worked with the best of them during his career, probably more than "any other director." Lumet began his career as an Off-Broadway director, then became a highly efficient TV director. His first movie was typical of his best work: a well-acted, tightly written, deeply considered "problem picture," 12 Angry Men (1957). From that point on Lumet divided his energies among other idealistic problem pictures along with literate adaptations of plays and novels, big stylish pictures, New York-based black comedies, and realistic crime dramas, including Serpico and Prince of the City. As a result of directing 12 Angry Men, he was also responsible for leading the first wave of directors who made a successful transition from TV to movies. In 2005, Lumet received an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement for his "brilliant services to screenwriters, performers, and the art of the motion picture." Two years later, he concluded his career with the acclaimed drama Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007). Description above from the Wikipedia article Sidney Lumet, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Born
June 25, 1924
Died
April 9, 2011 (age 86)
Birthplace
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Filmography
107 films, 32 shows


Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
2007 · 1h 57m
country: United States
When two brothers organize the robbery of their parents' jewelry store, the job goes horribly wrong, triggering a series of events that send them and their family hurtling towards a shattering climax.


Find Me Guilty
2006 · 2h 5m
country: Germany
Based on the true story of Jack DiNorscio, a mobster who defended himself in court for what would be the longest mafia trial in U.S. history.
Rachel, When the Lord
Rachel, When the Lord
2004 · 12m
country: United States
A passionate performance of "Rachel, quand du Seigneur" (Rachel, when the Lord...), a celebrated aria from the Fromental Halévy's famous opera "La Juive" (The Jewess).


Strip Search
2004 · 56m
country: United States
Strip Search follows several parallel stories examining personal freedoms vs. national security in the aftermath of 9/11; two main subplots involve an American woman detained in China and an Arab man detained in New York City.


Gloria
1999 · 1h 48m
country: United States
After serving a prison term for her boyfriend, a streetwise, middle-aged moll named Gloria stands up against the mobs, which is complicated by a six-year-old urchin with a will of his own, whom she reluctantly takes under her wing after his family has been gunned down.


Critical Care
1997 · 1h 47m
country: United States
Werner Ernst is a young hospital resident who becomes embroiled in a legal battle between two half-sisters who are fighting over the care of their comatose father. But are they really fighting over their father's care, or over his $10 million estate? Meanwhile, Werner must contend with his nutty supervisor, who insists that he only care for patients with full insurance. Can Werner sidestep the hospital's legal team and do what's best for the patient?


Night Falls on Manhattan
1997 · 1h 53m
country: United States
A newly elected District attorney finds himself in the middle of a police corruption investigation that may involve his father and his partner.


Guilty as Sin
1993 · 1h 47m
country: United States
Before a criminal lawyer knows what has happened, she is forced to defend a wife killer she knows is guilty.


A Stranger Among Us
1992 · 1h 50m
country: United States
Detective Emily Eden is a tough New York City cop forced to go undercover to solve a puzzling murder. Her search for the truth takes her into a secret world of unwritten law and unspoken power, a world where the only way out is deeper in.


Q & A
1990 · 2h 12m
country: United States
A young district attorney seeking to prove a case against a corrupt police detective encounters a former lover and her new protector, a crime boss who refuses to help him.


Family Business
1989 · 1h 50m
country: United States
Jessie is an aging career criminal who has been in more jails, fights, schemes, and lineups than just about anyone else. His son Vito, while currently on the straight and narrow, has had a fairly shady past and is indeed no stranger to illegal activity. They both have great hope for Adam, Vito's son and Jessie's grandson, who is bright, good-looking, and without a criminal past.


Running on Empty
1988 · 1h 56m
country: United States
The Popes are a family who haven't been able to use their real identity for years. In the late sixties, the parents set a weapons lab afire in an effort to hinder the government's Vietnam war campaign. Ever since then, the Popes have been on the run with the authorities never far behind. Their survival is threatened when their eldest son falls in love with a girl, and announces his wish to live his life on his own terms.


The Morning After
1986 · 1h 42m
country: United States
Failed actress Alex Sternbergen wakes up hungover one morning in an apartment she does not recognize, unable to remember the previous evening -- and with a dead body in bed next to her. As she tries to piece together the events of the night, Alex cannot totally rely on friends or her estranged husband, Joaquin, for assistance. Only a single ally, loner ex-policeman Turner Kendall, can help her escape her predicament and find the true killer.


Power
1986 · 1h 51m
country: United States
Pete St. John is a powerful and successful political consultant, with clients spread around the country. When his long-time friend and client Ohio senator Sam Hastings decides to quit politics, he is rapidly drafted to help with the campaign of the man destined to succeed him, unknown and mysterious businessman Jerome Cade...


Garbo Talks
1984 · 1h 43m
country: United States
When New York accountant Gilbert Rolfe finds out his mother has a brain tumor, he is devastated. His incorrigible mother, Estelle, has one last wish: to meet the great Greta Garbo. Gilbert, wanting to do this last thing for her, sets out on a wild goose chase through the streets of New York City to track down the iconic star, at the expense of his personal life and much to the chagrin of his wife, Lisa. Can he find Garbo before it's too late?


Daniel
1983 · 2h 10m
country: United Kingdom
The fictionalized story of Daniel, the son of Paul and Rochelle Isaacson, who were executed as Soviet spies in the 1950s. As a graduate student in New York in the 1960s, Daniel is involved in the antiwar protest movement and contrasts his experiences to the memory of his parents and his belief that they were wrongfully convicted.


The Verdict
1982 · 2h 9m
country: United States
Frank Galvin is a down-on-his-luck lawyer and reduced to drinking and ambulance chasing, when a former associate reminds him of his obligations in a medical malpractice suit by serving it to Galvin on a silver platter—all parties are willing to settle out of court. Blundering his way through the preliminaries, Galvin suddenly realizes that the case should actually go to court—to punish the guilty, to get a decent settlement for his clients... and to restore his standing as a lawyer.


Deathtrap
1982 · 1h 56m
country: United States
A Broadway playwright puts murder in his plan to take credit for a student's script.


Prince of the City
1981 · 2h 47m
country: United States
New York City detective Daniel Ciello agrees to help the United States Department of Justice eliminate corruption in the police department, as long as he will not have to turn in any close friends. In doing so, Ciello uncovers a conspiracy within the force to smuggle drugs to street informants.


Just Tell Me What You Want
1980 · 1h 52m
country: United States
A television producer woman tries to let down her overbearing boyfriend who is her boss. She wants to marry with a young writer.


The Wiz
1978 · 2h 14m
country: United States
Dorothy Gale, a shy kindergarten teacher, is swept away to the magic land of Oz where she embarks on a quest to return home.


Equus
1977 · 2h 17m
country: United Kingdom
A psychiatrist, Martin Dysart, investigates the savage blinding of six horses with a metal spike in a stable in Hampshire, England. The atrocity was committed by an unassuming seventeen-year-old stable boy named Alan Strang, the only son of an opinionated but inwardly-timid father and a genteel, religious mother. As Dysart exposes the truths behind the boy's demons, he finds himself face-to-face with his own.


Network
1976 · 2h 2m
country: United States
When veteran anchorman Howard Beale is forced to retire his 25-year post because of his age, he announces to viewers that he will kill himself during his farewell broadcast. Network executives rethink their decision when his fanatical tirade results in a spike in ratings.


Dog Day Afternoon
1975 · 2h 4m
country: United States
Based on the true story of would-be Brooklyn bank robbers John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturile. Sonny and Sal attempt a bank heist which quickly turns sour and escalates into a hostage situation and stand-off with the police. As Sonny's motives for the robbery are slowly revealed and things become more complicated, the heist turns into a media circus.


Murder on the Orient Express
1974 · 2h 8m
country: United Kingdom
In 1935, when his train is stopped by deep snow, detective Hercule Poirot is called on to solve a murder that occurred in his car the night before.


Lovin' Molly
1974 · 1h 38m
country: United States
Spanning nearly 40 years from 1925 to 1964, two Texas farm boys; straight-arrow Gid and laid-back Johnny fight over the affections of the beautiful and headstrong Molly Taylor, who consistently refuses to marry either of them.


Serpico
1973 · 2h 9m
country: United States
New York cop Frank Serpico blows the whistle on the rampant corruption in the force only to have his comrades turn against him.


The Offence
1973 · 1h 53m
country: United Kingdom
A burned-out British police detective finally snaps while interrogating a suspected child molester.


Child's Play
1972 · 1h 40m
country: United States
At an exclusive boys' school, a new gym teacher is drawn into a feud between two older instructors, and he discovers that everything at the school is not quite as staid, tranquil and harmless as it seems.


The Anderson Tapes
1971 · 1h 39m
country: United States
Thief Duke Anderson—just released from ten years in jail—takes up with his old girlfriend in her posh apartment block, and makes plans to rob the entire building. What he doesn't know is that his every move is being recorded on audio and video, although he is not the subject of any surveillance.


King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis
1970 · 3h 5m
country: United States
A presentation of key events in the life of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. Beginning with the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, MLK is followed through major steps in his struggle to promote racial equality. Including footage of King's stirring speeches, it is a fitting tribute to his legacy, and features clips narrated by a wide range of celebrities, including Harry Belafonte, Paul Newman Charlton Heston, Ruby Dee, Burt Lancaster, Anthony Quinn, Walter Matthau, Ben Gazzara, Clarence Williams III, Joanne Woodward, and James Earl Jones.


Last of the Mobile Hot Shots
1970 · 1h 40m
country: United States
A new bride gets caught between her decadent husband and his black half-brother.


The Appointment
1969 · 1h 55m
country: United States
Lawyer Federico Fendi has reasons to suspect that his fashion model wife Carla is secretly one of Rome's highest paid call-girls.


The Sea Gull
1968 · 2h 24m
country: United Kingdom
Film adaptation of Anton Chekhov's story of life in rural Russia during the latter part of the 19th century.


Bye Bye Braverman
1968 · 1h 34m
country: United States
One day, Morroe Rieff learns that his friend and fellow writer, Leslie Braverman, has died. After meeting Leslie's widow, Inez, who is more flirtatious than grieving, Morroe joins up with three other writer friends, Barnet, Felix, and Holly to attend funeral services. However, the quartet faces numerous obstacles that could keep them from paying their respects.


The Deadly Affair
1967 · 1h 55m
country: United Kingdom
Charles Dobbs is a British secret agent investigating the apparent suicide of Foreign Office official Samuel Fennan. Dobbs suspects that Fennan's wife, Elsa, a survivor of a Nazi Germany extermination camp, might have some clues, but other officials want Dobbs to drop the case. So Dobbs hires a retiring inspector, Mendel, to quietly make inquiries. Dobbs isn't at all sure as there are a number of anomalies that simply can't be explained away. Dobbs is also having trouble at home with his errant wife, whom he very much loves, having frequent affairs. He's also pleased to see an old friend, Dieter Frey, who he recruited after the war. With the assistance of a colleague and a retired policeman, Dobbs tries to piece together just who is the spy and who in fact assassinated Fennan.


The Group
1966 · 2h 32m
country: United States
It's 1933, and eight young women are friends and members of the upper-class group at a private girl's school, about to graduate and start their own lives. The film documents the years between their graduation and the beginning of the World War in Europe, and shows, in a serialized style, their romances and marriages, their searches for careers or meaning in their lives, their highs and their lows.


The Hill
1965 · 2h 3m
country: United Kingdom
North Africa, World War II. British soldiers on the brink of collapse push beyond endurance to struggle up a brutal incline. It's not a military objective. It's The Hill, a manmade instrument of torture, a tower of sand seared by a white-hot sun. And the troops' tormentors are not the enemy, but their own comrades-at-arms.


The Pawnbroker
1965 · 1h 56m
country: United States
A Jewish pawnbroker, a victim of Nazi persecution, loses all faith in his fellow man until he realizes too late the tragedy of his actions.


Fail Safe
1964 · 1h 52m
country: United States
Because of a technical defect an American bomber team mistakenly orders the destruction of Moscow. The President of the United States has but little time to prevent an atomic catastrophe from occurring.


Long Day's Journey Into Night
1962 · 2h 50m
country: United States
An Irish miser, his morphine addicted wife, their debauched older son, and a gravely ill younger son. A quiet Connecticut vacation home on one foggy day in August 1912 becomes the backdrop for domestic decline.


A View from the Bridge
1962 · 1h 50m
country: France
Eddie Carbone, a Brooklyn longshoreman is unhappily married to Beatrice and unconsciously in love with Catherine, the niece that they have raised from childhood. Into his house come two brothers, illegal immigrants, Marco and Rodolpho. Catherine falls in love with Rudolpho; and Eddie, tormented but unable to admit even to himself his quasi-incestuous love, reports the illegal immigrants to the authorities.


Play of the Week: Rashomon
1960 · 1h 30m
country: United States
Set in ancient Japan, Rashomon follows the aftermath of a bandit’s attack on a warrior and his wife, as the bandit, the wife, the husband, and a woodcutter each offer different versions of what happened. Directed for "Play of the Week" by Sidney Lumet, the production uses the story’s shifting testimonies to examine truth, self-image, violence, and moral uncertainty.


John Brown's Raid
1960 · 1h
country: United States
White abolitionist John Brown and twenty of his men attempt to start an armed slave revolt in 1859 by seizing a U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Based on true events.


The Dybbuk
1960 · 1h 44m
country: United States
The Dybbuk is a made for TV film adaptation of a classic Jewish folktale. The story is about a young Jewish man, Sender (Theodore Bikel) who loves a young Jewish woman, Leah (Carol Lawrence) but her father arranges her marriage with another man. The grief of this causes Sender to die, but his spirit passes into the body of his beloved on her wedding day. Rabbi Azrael (Ludwig Donath), who serves as our narrator through the beginning of the film, is charged with the task of exercising Sender’s Dybbuk (sometimes defined as a malicious spirit or demon who possesses the living) from Leah’s body.


The Fugitive Kind
1960 · 2h 1m
country: United States
Val Xavier, a drifter of obscure origins, arrives at a small town and gets a job in a store run by Lady Torrence. Her husband, Jabe M. Torrance, is dying of cancer. Val is pursued by Carol Cutere, the enigmatic local tramp-of-good-family.


Playhouse 90: The Hiding Place
1960 · 1h 30m
country: Unknown
In the last days of World War II, two English airmen are captured by an ordinary German citizen, who, instead of handing them over to the authorities, keeps them prisoner in his cellar, neglecting to tell them when the war ends.
Sunday Showcase
Sunday Showcase
1959
country: Unknown


That Kind of Woman
1959 · 1h 32m
country: United States
A young G.I. falls in love with a kept woman on a train to New York.
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Count of Monte Cristo
1958 · 1h 16m
country: Unknown
An adaptation of the novel by Alexandre Dumas


All the King's Men
1958 · 1h 30m
country: United States
The life of populist Southerner Willie Stark, a political creature loosely based on Governor Huey Long of Louisiana, based upon the Robert Penn Warren-novel.


Stage Struck
1958 · 1h 35m
country: United States
A young woman arrives in New York City determined to become a great theatrical star, but discovers that her goal may not be as easily attainable as she had hoped.


Three Plays by Tennessee Williams
1958 · 1h
country: United States
A presentation of Tennessee Williams' three one-act plays: "Moony's Kid Don't Cry," "The Last of My Solid Gold Watches," and "This Property Is Condemned."


Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates
1958 · 1h 30m
country: United States
In Holland, poor but industrious and honorable 15-year-old Hans Brinker and his younger sister yearn to participate in December's great ice skating race on the canal.


Mr. Broadway
1957 · 1h 30m
country: United States
A musical television special chronicling the early career of playwright George M. Cohan, focusing primarily on his vaudeville years as part of his family singing group "The Four Cohans."


12 Angry Men
1957 · 1h 37m
country: United States
The defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open and shut case soon becomes a mini-drama of each of the jurors' prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, and each other.


Tragedy in a Temporary Town
1956 · 56m
country: United States
Fifteen-year-old girl Dotty Fisher is assaulted at a construction camp. In the wake of this incident, the construction workers form a vigilante group led by the hot-headed Frank Doran in order to find the person responsible for the attack. After the group erroneously assume that innocent Puerto Rican Raphael Infante is guilty of the crime, only one lone man named Alec Beggs dares to stand up to the angry mob.


The Challenge
1955 · 28m
country: United States
A school bus driver is dismissed by his local school board after refusing to sign a loyalty oath. Produced with assistance from the Fund for the Republic, this unsold television pilot presents the case as an open-ended civic drama, challenging viewers to consider how they would vote.