Obscure "12 Angry Men" question

September 18, 2014 7:11 AM

There's a scene in the 1957 film version of 12 Angry Men where Juror No. 7 starts whistling and No. 2. tells him to knock it off. 7 replies, "Okay, okay, okay, killer...yeah." (At 56:50 here.) The way he says it, it seems like Jack Warden is impersonating someone, but I have no idea who. Any ideas? Or, if it's not an impersonation, why the clear change of voice from that character?
posted by Pater Aletheias to Media & Arts (6 answers total)

Best answer: sounds like an impersonation of James Cagney.
posted by Gungho at 7:16 AM on September 18, 2014 [5 favorites]

Gungho I think is correct. Not sure why he impersonated Cagney, but that appears to be who he is impersonating.
posted by 724A at 7:33 AM on September 18, 2014

Agree, Cagney.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 7:33 AM on September 18, 2014

Best answer: Yeah, that's Cagney-slash-Edward-G.-Robinson-slash-generic-1930s-movie-gangster. Like the little guy in the Bugs Bunny cartoons: "I'm gonna plug ya, see..."
posted by Etrigan at 7:38 AM on September 18, 2014 [4 favorites]

It seems like it might be a pop-culture reference of some sort. There's a famous scene in Scarface (1932) where the a killer whistles right before pulling the trigger. I'm not saying it's a reference to Scarface necessarily (I don't recall the plot of the movie that well), but maybe something similar?
posted by OrangeDisk at 7:55 AM on September 18, 2014

In those days, a Cagney reference was shorthand for "tough guy." On top of that, in 1957 TV shows would have been full of hack impressionists—or even good ones—doing Cagney impressions. In the movie context No. 7 is sarcastically calling No. 2 a tough guy, and showing himself as the kind of guy who drops bad jokes into casual conversations.
posted by Flexagon at 1:27 PM on September 18, 2014