A day late perhaps but I didn’t want to let Lumet’s passing go without some comment. He died of cancer yesterday at age 86.
After that string of commercial and financial hits, Lumet’s career included a wide variety of films: adaptations of Broadway hits Equus (1977, fairly successful), The Wiz (1978, a musical flop but a strangely visionary view of New York), Deathtrap (1982, unexpected fun if not a perfect film); crime drama Prince of the City (1981, one of Lumet’s most unheralded fims); courtroom drama The Verdict (1982, a big hit that earned star Paul Newman and Lumet Oscar nominations); Hollywood melodrama (1986′s The Morning After, starring Jane Fonda); and indie drama (Running On Empty, the 1988 drama with River Phoenix in his only Oscar-nominated performance). Lumet’s last film was the 2007 drama Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, which starred indie stalwarts Philip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Tomei, Ethan Hawke, and Amy Ryan.
The list of his films is impressive to be sure. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead — his last film — was CPOD last November. He had the gift until his last film.
Deathtrap is one of my favorites.
Michael Caine explaining how good “Deathtrap” is to Dyan Cannon: “I’ll tell you how good it is: even a gifted director couldn’t fuck it up.”
Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve were great in that one. The stage version is also excellent.
I agree, I haven’t seen it in years but thought it was great.
He wrote one of the only books I’ve bothered to read about directing film – very well done. Lumet was definitely a craftsman, whose films did the talking.
Good point about “Prince of the City”…similar in theme to “Serpico”,but richer,I thought.Another cop movie he did was “Q&A”,got one of Nick Nolte’s best performances.