You Only Live Once (1937)

Believe it or not, I saw two Henry Fonda films back to back, the other was 12 Angry Men (check the previous post). I had never seen a Henry Fonda movie in my life but I do recall seeing his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Would want to watch some more of his movies.

Immediately after hearing the name Fonda, I remember Jane Fonda (who incidentally is Henry's daughter) and immediately recall my childhood days and my mother doing her aerobics work-out while watching Jane's work-out video on VHS.

A mug (Henry Fonda) is released from prison and marries his sweet-heart (Sylvia Sidney). However, he is wrongly accused of an armoured truck robbery which leads to the death of six people. He is caught but escapes from jail killing a Priest in the process. Turns out his innocence was proved but then this murder just gets him back to square one. He and his wife are now on the run from the law.

I think this movie kind of partly gave inspiration to Bonnie and Clyde (which in turn inspired Bunty Aur Babli).

Personally, I think YOLO is over-rated. However, considering the year it was made it I might say it was pretty decent. Great performances- Henry is good, Sylvia is really beautiful and does really well, decent direction and decent screenplay.

Watch it if you have nothing much to do on a day where you are lazy enough not to crib for your lost time in case you don't like it.

12 Angry Men (1957)

Finally saw the 1957 classic and now I can clearly see why it is called one.

12 jury members are asked by the court of law to decide the fate of a young boy who is accused of murdering his father. Now, the jury members have to reach a unanimous decision which will either release the boy or get him the chair. Seems like its going to be a unanimous decision of guilty as all the evidence is against the bboy until one of the jurors casts his vote as not guilty. The leading man Henry Fonda (terrific) is the one who does it much to the annoyance of others who want to leave. Now its up to the rest to either change his mind or up to him to change the others minds.

It's pretty cool one by one each juror changes his vote and not without reason. Awesome!!

What is even more amazing are the characters in the film. Each juror has a distinct personality and all of them end up with amazing performances.

Really wonderful story telling by the director Sidney Lumet. He’s the same guy who made Al Pacino’s Dog Day Afternoon almost two decades later. Don’t know much about him but read that he is one big gun in Hollywood. Not surprising considering he made 12 and Dog.

This movie was made in India by Basu Chatterjee in the form of Ek Rukah Hua Faisla. Haven’t seen it but have heard that it was really good. Thank God it was made by Basuda. Recently it was in the news that Vivek Agnihotri plans to remake 12 Angry Men. I sincerely hope he doesn’t. Having seen his last two movies, I’m sure this one too will be a disaster as well as a slap to the original.