Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

This film was on TV not too long ago, and I loved it. I was watching because of the cast, Dana Andrews and Joan Fontaine are reason enough to watch it, but I was very pleasantly surprised. I knew that there was going to be some sort of twist ending, so I was expecting the unexpected - and I was still surprised! Good performances from the entire cast, a job very well done.

Opening with a ridiculously melodramatic prison execution scene, director Fritz Lang sets up this 'hard-bitten' story in the hoariest manner. Plot about former newspaperman-turned-novelist incriminating himself in a murder he didn't commit (to make points on capital punishment AND come up with a bestseller in the bargain!) is just dumbfoundingly basic, a connect-the-dots noir without any of the genre's suspense, passion or intrigue. Hitchcock would have certainly added some subtext; here, Lang is straightforward in all the wrong ways, underlining every human stupidity just to make that maximum impact. It's a message picture wherein the message is buried underneath impossible contrivances. As late-night TV fodder, the film is just passable, but as a Hollywood career-capper for Fritz Lang it's all rather depressing. ** from ****

... and I highly recommend it. The implausible plot has a few large potholes and implausible events but it has a heck of an ending. It is clever enough to be entertaining while being complete and utter glossy trash. They couldn't possibly believe this film made any points against capital punishment. Barbara Nichols is priceless as always.

Fritz Lang's last film in America saw him reunited with some of the people with whom he had made WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS, and while the budget is still clearly poverty row, once again he comes up with a terrific commentary on the ills at the heart of fifties America. This time, it's the death penalty that forms the centrepiece of the film - or it seems to be, since that's the plot motor. But look closer, and you'll find it's actually about two of Lang's most familiar subjects: guilt and hypocrisy. Almost everyone in the film lives a double life, most obviously Dana Andrews' writer, but even Joan Fontaine's deeply frustrated spinster, who really can't wait to marry Andrews, and whose horror, when she discovers his double life is palpable. Lang floats above his subject matter elegantly, occasionally dipping his toe into the sleaze (a wonderful scene towards the end with a Miami strip-joint owner), getting terrific performances and indicting an entire society.

"Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" is a curious film - it has the look and feel of a B movie and two stars who had seen better days - Dana Andrews and Joan Fontaine - yet it's a good script directed by Fritz Lang. A novelist (Andrews) and his future father-in-law, a newspaper magnet (Sidney Blackmer) work together to prove that the death penalty isn't justified by framing Andrews for a recent murder. I thought the story excellent with some exciting twists, though the whole movie has an underplayed (not to mention inexpensive) feeling to it. Fontaine seemed a little old for her role. However, she does a good job as a sophisticate, and Andrews is good as well. Barbara Nichols does a fine job in a typical supporting role for her. Lang returned to Germany after this film, his last in America. It's an effective plot but one wishes the man who made Metropolis and so many other fine films was given more of a budget for his swansong.