The Seventh Juror

The Seventh Juror (Le Septième Juré) is a 1962 French black-and-white crime drama directed by Georges Lautner. Adapted from Francis Didelot's 1958 novel of the same name, it stars Bernard Blier, Maurice Biraud, Francis Blanche and Danièle Delorme.

The story follows a man who kills a young woman. When the victim's boyfriend is wrongly charged with the murder and put on trial, the real killer is by chance selected to sit on the jury. Unwilling to let an innocent man be condemned, he finds himself trapped between his own guilt and his conscience as the proceedings unfold.

Beyond its courtroom suspense, the film works as a study of provincial bourgeois society and its codes of respectability. Filming took place in late 1961, and the picture drew over a million admissions in France.