BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT

Crusading newspaper publisher Austin Spencer (Sidney Blackmer) is a strong anti-death penalty advocate. He believes that with only circumstantial evidence, gung-ho district attorney Jonathan Wilson (Shepperd Strudwick) can convict and sentence to death an innocent man.

To prove his theory, Spencer convinces his future son-in-law and novelist Tom Garrett (Dana Andrews), to allow himself to be framed for the murder of burlesque dancer Patty Gray. The police have no actual suspects and Spencer and Garrett plan to scrupulously document every clue they plant. The end game is the arrest, trial, conviction and, ultimately, death sentence for Garrett. But don't worry, Spencer will spring his evidence at the last minute, exonerating Garrett and showing Wilson to be a too-ready to convict prosecutor.

It's a simple scheme, right? I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

This being a Fritz Lang directed film noir, plenty can and does go wrong. Garrett is convicted and sentenced to death but Spencer dies in a fiery car accident (which also destroys his evidence) and now it's a race against time to save an innocent man from the electric chair. But a third act twist (that I didn't see coming), changes everything.

BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT (1956) was the last American film legendary director Fritz Lang made before returning to Europe. Produced at RKO, it's an efficient little thriller with a twisty screenplay by Douglas Morrow. Noir icon Andrews is very good as the doomed, innocent man and Blackmer, Arthur Franz, and Edward Binns all provide solid support. On the distaff side of the ledger, Joan Fontaine brings Garrett's conflicted fiance, Susan, to vivid life while Barbara Nichols adds sass and brass to her role as dance hall girl Dolly.

Crisply shot by William Snyder, BEYOND shows a master of the genre operating with a smooth, assured authority. It's a crazy plot but Lang and company do a great job of selling it, resulting in a suspenseful, hard-hitting film noir.

Recommended.