I, the Jury has been filmed twice: first directed by Harry Essex in 1953 with Biff Eliot starring as Mike Hammer and second directed by Richard Heffron in 1982 with Armand Assante in the lead role. The initial film was a typical low-budget, early 1950s detective movie with so-so production values and indifferent acting and directing, although it did capture the late 1940s style of the novel more successfully than did the 1980s version. Armand Assante played an updated Mike Hammer in the 1982 version and his portrayal in many ways comes closer to capturing the essence of the character than any other portrayal on the screen, including Spillane's own attempt. By updating the timeframe, the later movie also captured the grittiness, violence, and sex inhibited at least in part by the production code imposed on the earlier filmed version of the novel.

Although only indirectly an adaptation of this novel...