Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

Working with his fiancee's father, a newspaper publisher, a novelist frames himself for murder, intending to produce exonerating evidence at the last moment. But the publisher suddenly dies, the evidence is lost...
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
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Format:  DVD-R
item number:  FGAQ
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DVD-R Details

  • Run Time: 1 hours, 20 minutes
  • Video: Black & White
  • Encoding: Region 0 (Worldwide)
  • Released: May 13, 2011
  • Originally Released: 1956
  • Label: Warner Archive Collection (MOD)

Performers, Cast and Crew:

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Directed by
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Entertainment Reviews:

Fresh71%

TOMATOMETER
Total Count: 17

Spilled54%

AUDIENCE SCORE
User Ratings: 721
Rating: 2/4 -- Beyond a Reasonable Doubt is a ludicrous story, very hard to swallow. Lang, who should have known better, must have directed this with his good eye closed. Full Review
TV Guide
Oct 16, 2014
Rating: 4/5 -- While perhaps overdependent on coincidence and contrivance, this deft thriller guards its secret right to the end and proved a fitting swan song to Fritz Lang's Hollywood career. Full Review
Radio Times
Oct 16, 2014
one of the best plot twists of all time. Full Review
Out of the Past
Nov 7, 2018
Rating: 3/4 -- Says a prosecutor, during the trial: 'Beneath his intellectual and cultured exterior, he was moved by brutal impulses.' Is this also Lang's self-indictment? Or an indictment of any artist who trucks in sexual titillation and murder-as-entertainment? Full Review
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
Apr 29, 2011
Rating: 4/5 -- Fritz Lang's last American movie is an edgy study in moral ambiguity. Full Review
Total Film
Oct 16, 2014
While the purpose may be exemplary, the method the gentlemen employ is highly dubious as a practical exposition. And once it is revealed to prove their point, it should certainly put them in a pickle for conspiring to subvert justice and fool the courts. Full Review
New York Times
Feb 3, 2007
Douglas Morrow's screenplay for BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT is indeed on the tricksy side, with carpets being pulled from beneath carpets before the final sleight in the very last seconds of the film.
Sight and Sound
Aug 1, 2011

Description by OLDIES.com:

After director Fritz Lang vaulted to prominence with such masterpieces of German cinema as Metropolis and M, he brought his art to Hollywood films, including Fury, Ministry of Fear, The Woman in the Window and more trenchant tales of innocents caught in a web of seeming guilt. His last U.S. movie is this intriguing film noir about a novelist (Dana Andrews) out to expose the injustices of capital punishment. Working with his fianc?e's (Joan Fontaine) father, a newspaper publisher (Sidney Blackmer), he frames himself for murder, intending to produce exonerating evidence at the last moment. But the publisher suddenly dies, the evidence is lost...and that's only the first twist in a brilliantly layered plot ideally suited to Lang's talents.

Product Description:

Crusading publisher Austin Spenser (Sidney Blackmer) wants to prove a point about the insufficiency of circumstantial evidence. Spencer talks his prospective son-in-law Tom Garrett (Dana Andrews) into participating in a hoax, the better to expose the alleged ineptitude of conviction-happy DA (Philip Bourneuf). Tom will plant clues indicating that he is the murderer of a nightclub dancer, then stand trial for murder; just as the jury reaches its inevitable guilty verdict, Spencer will step forth to reveal the set-up and humiliate the DA. Somewhat surprisingly, Tom eagerly agrees to this subterfuge. Unfortunately, an unforeseen event renders their perfectly formed scheme useless. BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT was the last American film of director Fritz Lang.

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This product is made-on-demand by the manufacturer using DVD-R recordable media. Almost all DVD players can play DVD-Rs (except for some older models made before 2000) - please consult your owner's manual for formats compatible with your player. These DVD-Rs may not play on all computers or DVD player/recorders. To address this, the manufacturer recommends viewing this product on a DVD player that does not have recording capability.

Movie Lovers' Ratings & Reviews:

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a must have movie from a master director Movie Lover: from SARCELLES, VAL-D'OISE FR -- April, 4, 2013

from a simple thriller Fritz lang makes up a real philosophical tale about what is real and fake.
But in the end manhood is always guillty
the casting is, as usual, very good.
This is a short movie which tells you more than any other so called "suspense" film


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Warner Archive Collection

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Product Info

  • Sales Rank: 17,026
  • UPC: 883316271018
  • Shipping Weight: 0.25/lbs (approx)
  • International Shipping: 1 item

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