Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956)

Director:

Fritz Lang

Writer:

Douglas Morrow (story)

Release Date:

5 September 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Film-Noir | Drama

Tagline:

Put them all together they spell M-U-R-D-E-R !

Plot:

Writer sets himself up to take murder rap to show the errors of circumstantial evidence. With a friend...

Plot Keywords:

Trial | Falsely Convicted | Beautiful Woman | Twist In The End

Cast

Dana Andrews	...	Tom Garrett
Joan Fontaine	...	Susan Spencer
Sidney Blackmer	...	Austin Spencer
Arthur Franz	...	Bob Hale
Philip Bourneuf	...	Roy Thompson
Edward Binns	...	Lt. Kennedy
Shepperd Strudwick	...	Jonathan Wilson
Robin Raymond	...	Terry Larue
Barbara Nichols	...	Dolly Moore
William F. Leicester	...	Charlie Miller (as William Leicester)
Dan Seymour	...	Greco
Rusty Lane	...	Judge
Joyce Taylor	...	Joan Williams
Carleton Young	...	Allan Kirk
Trudy Wroe	...	Hatcheck girl

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.00 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #18013) | UK:PG (re-rating) (1990) | West Germany:12 (f) | UK:A (original rating) (1956) | Finland:K-16

Company:

Bert E. Friedlob Productions

Trivia:

The last film that 'Fritz Lang' made in the USA before returning to Germany.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Ritual (2001/I)

Soundtrack:

Beyond A Reasonable Doubt

Surprising Twist in a Great Film-Noir

The owner of an important newspaper Austin Spencer (Sidney Blackmer) opposes to the capital punishment and particularly to the prosecutor Roy Thompson (Philip Bourneuf), who has just succeeded in a trial based on circumstantial evidences. When a dancer is strangled and the police have no suspect, Austin convinces his future son-in-law, the prominent writer Tom Garrett (Dana Andrews), to plant circumstantial evidences to self-incriminate, while he would hold pictures, receipts and other evidences of his innocence until the very last moment. Later Austin would begin a campaign in his newspaper disclosing the possibility of sending an innocent to the electric chair. They decide to hide the truth from Austin's daughter Susan (Joan Fontaine) since she could not support the situation under stress. When the jury withdraws from the court in the end of the trial to give the sentence, Austin takes the evidences that prove the innocence of Tom from his safe, but has a car accident and dies. Tom is sentenced to death penalty and tries to convince Susan of his innocence as his last hope.

"Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" is a great film-noir with a surprising twist in the very end. The plot seems to be naive – who would accept to be accused of murder just to prove a point against the death penalty? – but after the very last twist, the concept changes from naive to Machiavellian. I have glanced unfair reviews in IMDb that I do not agree, since I liked this movie a lot. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Suplício de uma Alma" ("Torment of a Soul")