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Didn't Like Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956), an American film, directed by Fritz Lang and written by Douglass Morrow, starring Dana Andrews (Tom Garrett), Sidney Blackmer (Austin Spencer), Joan Fontaine (Susan Spencer), and Arthur Franz (Bob Hale).

It’s a story about a news publisher who opposes death penalty on circumstantial evidence and wants to prove a point in court. Together with his to‐be‐son‐in‐law, a writer looking for inspiration, he uses an existing murder to plant circumstantial evidence and create an argument against death penalty. But the publisher dies in an accident and the writer finds himself facing death penalty for the murder of a woman. His fiancée tries to help him and … but that’s the irrelevant, unredeeming part of the story for me.     

Maybe it’s because I am looking at this film in 2025… I didn’t like the film. Death penalty on circumstantial evidence may have been a big debate in the 1950s. But the presentation of the premise itself is odd. The publisher goes to great lengths—beyond the scope of reality—to prove his point. He involves his to‐be‐son‐in‐law in a very risky plan. If his plans went awry, courts would put him and his accomplices behind bars but that's not even a considered threat.

Then the film gets real on cue. The publisher dies in an accident and, now, we’re supposed to feel the urgency from Tom Garrett facing death for murder. I didn’t swim that way. The final twist in the tale makes the whole story feel terribly contrived.

I wish Fritz Lang and his writer gave me something to cling on to.😢 

 

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