Sidney Lumet: A Life Behind the Camera

The Pawnbroker, 1965
Rod Steiger performs with tightly measured virtuosity. He is colorless, an inconspicuous blob hidden behind steel-rimmed glasses and a steel-wool mustache. Lumet brings the movie alive when his camera turns on Harlem's blighted streets, sopping up the juices of a slum that breeds thieves and prostitutes and all their prey.

• Sidney Lumet: Apostle of Streetwise Cinema