Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956)
Director: Fritz Lang
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Lang's most austere film, reducing the characters to pawns arbitrarily shifted in demonstration of a fascinating theorem. Andrews plays a writer who plans, with the cooperation of a newspaper publisher, to discredit the concept of capital punishment: by deliberately implicating himself as a murderer, he will prove the ease with which circumstantial evidence can lead to wrongful conviction. But after he is duly convicted, the publisher (his sole confidant) is accidentally killed and evidence of the plan destroyed. Despite the ingenious/ingenuous twist that ensues, the film is not concerned with innocence or guilt but with demonstrating that justice, finally, lies in the hand of fate. Not a forthcoming film, but one which repays attention.Author: TM
Cast & crew
Director: Fritz Lang
Producer: Bert Friedlob
Cast: Dana Andrews, Joan Fontaine, Sidney Blackmer, Barbara Nichols, Philip Bourneuf, Shepperd Strudwick, Arthur Franz full cast
Genre(s): Thrillers
Duration: 80 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Ang Lee talks 'Taking Woodstock'
Ang Lee talks to Tom Huddleston about his tale of the men behind history’s greatest music festival
Hippies who work for The Man
To celebrate George Clooney comedy 'The Men who Stare at Goats', we look back at six memorable onscreen hippies who fought the system from within
Roland Emmerich's guide to disaster movies
Ahead of the release of '2012', Roland Emmerich offers his ten tips on creating the perfect global catastrophe
Grant Heslov: interview
Grant Heslov, director of 'The Men who Stare at Goats' talks about his old pal George Clooney, his interest in the paranormal, and his fond memories of working on 'Happy Days'
The Coen brothers discuss 'A Serious Man'
Masters of contrary comedy, Joel and Ethan Coen have struck gold again with their latest, ‘A Serious Man’
Ten inspirations behind 'Avatar'?
Time Out ponders the influences behind James Cameron's anticipated space-opera on the basis of the trailer
Michael Haneke: The man behind the menace
From Cannes to Munich to London, Dave Calhoun tours Michael Haneke's Palme d'Or winner, 'The White Ribbon'
How Jane Campion brought John Keats back to life
Time Out gets Romantic with the ‘difficult’ New Zealander about her new film, 'Bright Star'
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations











What do you think?
Post your review now