THE VERDICT (1982)
Lumet had known Paul Newman from back in their TV days in the '50s, but the two had never worked together until this gut-wrenching courtroom drama about an alcoholic Boston ambulance chaser. The film earned five nominations, including Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Picture. But it was Gandhi's night.
''I took three weeks of rehearsal because I thought the characters were complex and Newman had told me that he was beginning to have some trouble remembering his lines. At the end of the second week, we were driving home together and he said, 'I feel like there's something you're not telling me.' And I told him that I thought he was butting against a wall with the part, that there was something about this guy he didn't want us to see. I subsequently found out that he had had a drinking problem as a young man and it was the booze that gave him trouble with the character. But Newman, to his credit, eventually said, 'F--- it, I'll let it all show.' The scene where he can't pick up the shot glass because his hands are shaking, so he leans forward and sips the top of it — that's a strong scene. I thought we might win that year. But I knew that Gandhi was the perfect Oscar movie — the big epic with the noble hero. [Lumet yawns dramatically.] It's the kind of picture I would never go see because I already know it frame by frame before I even step inside the theater. That's not the kind of film that interests me.''
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