Film Review
Fritz Lang's Hollywood swansong is arguably the best of his films
noirs, an understated yet thoroughly compelling crime melodrama that
powerfully evokes Lang's deeply felt cynicism about human nature and
his ambivalence for American society. Whilst the film lacks the
stylistic embellishments of Lang's earlier film noir offerings
Ministry of Fear (1944) and
The Woman in the Window (1944),
and is not as graphically shocking as his hard-edged masterpiece
The
Big Heat (1953),
Beyond a
Reasonable Doubt is one of the director's most disturbing films,
a sophisticated study in manipulation that has a very nasty after taste.
Peter Hyams' 2009 remake doesn't come anywhere near
to matching this film's artistic and narrative brilliance.
Beyond a
Reasonable Doubt is ahead of its time, both in its narrative complexity
(Douglas Morrow's screenplay is among the most ingenious and convincing
of any 1950s film noir) and its handling of an issue which, at the
time, Hollywood was somewhat loth to tackle - the rights and wrongs of
capital punishment. The ease with which the film plays on our
feelings, deludes us and leads us to the wrong conclusions (more than
once) underscores how easy it is for a persuasive lawyer to convince a
jury of a man's culpability for a crime he has not committed, and in
doing so provides the most powerful case against state-sanctioned
execution. Even when the film has unveiled its final plot twist
(after a head-spinning torrent of twists), we are doubtful that the
villain of the piece deserves the punishment that fate (or rather, a
flawed system of justice devised by man) has dished up for him.
Dana Andrews gives one of his more memorable performances as the
unlikely writer who seems strangely too enthusiastic to dig his own
grave, perhaps a subtle allusion to Andrews' own self-destructive
tendencies, which had relegated him to B-movies such as this after a
promising start to his career. By the time he made this film, the
actor was stricken with chronic alcoholism, which created major
problems for director Fritz Lang, who found him virtually impossible to
work with. Further run-ins with producer Bert L. Friedlob
strained Lang's patience too far and once the film was in the can the
director made up his mind to quit Hollywood and return to Europe, where
he continued making films for a few more years before retiring.
For Lang,
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
was a painful end to the most productive and demanding phase of his
career; for his devotees, it is one his finest works, a devious
psychological roller-coaster that should rank among some of the
greatest of all classic films noirs.
© James Travers 2011
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Next Fritz Lang film:
Das Indische Grabmal (1959)
Film Synopsis
For years, newspaper editor Austin Spencer has sought to expose
failings in the American legal system which may lead an innocent man to
the electric chair. He persuades his future son-in-law Tom
Garrett, an aspiring novelist, to assist him in an elaborate charade
that will discredit not only a system that he believes is flawed but
also the district attorney, who appears to relish sending convicted men
to their deaths. Together, Spencer and Garrett plant evidence
that will lead to the latter's arrest and trial for murder. The
plan is that, once Garrett has been found guilty and sentenced to
death, Spencer will produce photographic evidence that will prove
beyond any doubt his innocence. Needless to say, the plan goes
horribly wrong...
© James Travers
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