Though he shot films in Boston, Chicago, Toronto, London, Paris, and in Texas, New Mexico and

Louisiana (but never in Hollywood), Lumet made his name investigating the rough edges of the city he

grew up and old in. A fat fistful of his New York films — 12 Angry Men, The Pawnbroker, Bye Bye

Braverman, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, Prince of the City, Before the Devil Knows You're

Dead — could serve as a time-capsule of the American metropolis in its violent grandeur, its cunning,

desperation and raw wit. Let Woody Allen send valentines to the upper-middle class of neurotic literati.

Lumet's films were more like ransom notes, third-degree confessions, anguished screams through the

bars of a highrise window — from his Network — that "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this

any more."