50 Years After Debuting with 12 Angry Men, Lumet Goes Out With a Winner

Sidney Lumet's first movie -- 12 Angry Men -- came out in 1957.

Sidney Lumet's final movie -- Before the Devil Knows You're Dead -- came out in 2007.

A nice, neat trick. A full 50 years as a top director. With Henry Fonda and Lee J. Cobb and a bunch of great character actors in the beginning; with PSH, Ethan Hawke, the gorgeous Marisa Tomei and the ruined greatness of Albert Finney in the end.

12 Angry Men is more of an established classic - -and there were both great ones and bad ones in between -- but "The Devil" was filmed with great youthful fervor and filled with hard-R rated hearbreak, a serious film, a potential classic if viewed the right way.

Very few directors got a four-star final film. Hitchcock didn't. Hawks didn't. Ford didn't.

Lumet did.