"A great statement on human nature made by one of my favorite directors, Sidney Lumet. Early Jack Klugman, Jack Warden, and Martin Balsam are brilliant here, as well as the messenger/angel Henry Fonda. If you have any doubts about jury duty, please watch this. As for justice, there is just us . . ."

"Okay, I’m cheating: no one is murdered, and the confidence men and cardsharps are lovable. Still. This is Preston Sturges’s peak—a comedy that has not dated one whit, for which everyone involved, not least the actors (Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck, supported by a quartet of inspired scene stealers: Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette, Eric Blore, William Demarest), seems to have been thoroughly stimulated. Demarest’s closing line is perfect."

"I’m grateful I saw this movie when I was twelve years old, without a scrap of cynicism. It was my first exposure to the anatomy of a sequestered jury. I remember I couldn’t wait to get my turn to serve, to be like Henry Fonda and repudiate bigotry once and for all. This was the American dream—not a Cadillac and a cigar but justice—righteousness and fair play that any child could understand."

"I’ll choose one of the Preston Sturges comedies. It’s hard to decide between Lady Eve and Sullivan’s Travels. Those are two wonderful films. I’ve seen The Lady Eve maybe six or seven times. It’s Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda, right? It makes me laugh every time. It is a great comedy with some great, wonderful slapstick, and just very clever, very witty, and very sexy, too. She was very sexy in this film. These are all films that I watch more than once."