Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

Plot synopsis:
Shreveport, Louisiana TV reporter C. J. Nicholas (Jesse Metcalfe) is convinced that District Attorney Mark Hunter (Michael Douglas) is corrupt, following an unbroken string of convictions based only on circumstantial evidence. After flirting with Assistant D.A. Ella Crystal (Amber Tamblyn) to obtain an evidential videotape that he hopes will be revealing, they begin dating and fall in love.
The videotape suggests to Nicholas that Hunter is using one of his investigators, Lt. Merchant, to obtain DNA evidence from suspects in custody and plant the evidence to support a conviction. Still unable to prove his claim against Hunter, he is demoted from watchdog reporter to general assignment due to budget cuts. Nicholas becomes even more determined to expose Hunter, convinced that he will win a Pulitzer if successful.
He concocts an elaborate scheme to frame himself for the murder of a prostitute using circumstantial evidence. His passion for the project enlists support from Crystal—who still does not know he is gunning for her boss—and co-worker Corey Finley (Joel Moore). Finley accompanies him as he obtains objects online and from pawn shops that will circumstantially link Nicholas to the murder. Finley records these instances on video with Nicholas holding a newspaper showing the date to be after the date of the murder. The original video kept in Finley's desk and a back-up copy is placed in a safe deposit box.
Nicholas gets himself arrested for DUI while wearing his falsified circumstantial evidence. He is arrested and charged with the murder. Merchant, however, becomes suspicious and informs Hunter that Nicholas is trying to set them up.
Crystal, who still doesn't know what Nicholas has been plotting, visits him in jail and offers to quit her job and join his defense team, but he convinces her not to do so.
The next step in the plan is to wait until the prosecution rests its case, then introduce the documentary evidence exposing the truth. Hunter instructs Merchant to destroy the video evidence. Finley finds his desk ransacked. Panicked, he tries to retrieve the back-up, but is pursued by Merchant in a high-speed chase in which he is killed.
Nicholas reveals his plot in court using only the dated receipts for his falsified evidence, but Hunter casts doubt on his story. Nicholas has no proof that the victim's blood, which was found on the false evidence, was planted by Hunter's people. The jury convicts Nicholas for the crime.
Crystal still believes in Nicholas and begins her own investigation, unaware that Hunter knew she was dating Nicholas. She is followed by Merchant.
Nicholas is sentenced to death. Hunter visits him in prison to reveal that his phone calls to Crystal, guiding her investigation, have been recorded.
Crystal obtains crime scene photos from Hunter's convictions and takes them to digital photography experts, who determine that the objects containing the suspect's DNA evidence in each case have been digitally added to the original photos after the fact.
When she attempts to take this evidence to the police, Merchant tries to kill her with his car while she flees on foot. She is rescued by Lt. Nickerson (Orlando Jones), one of Nicholas' police contacts, who shoots Merchant dead. Nickerson reveals that he suspected Merchant was up to no good, and he had been "following him following" Crystal.
The doctored photo evidence leads to Hunter's arrest in a public scandal. Nicholas' conviction is declared a mistrial and he becomes a media celebrity. Hunter's convictions are re-examined by the state.
Crystal, however, begins to suspect that the evidence reveals something else, too. After re-watching Nicholas' award-winning documentary about the murder of a prostitute in Buffalo, New York, she recognizes the hands of a woman who supposedly died of a drug overdose during production as the hands of the victim in the murder for which Nicholas was convicted. She correctly deduces that the woman came to Shreveport to blackmail Nicholas, that Nicholas killed her, then used the murder in his scheme against Hunter.
Crystal alerts the police, and tells Nicholas that he is not subject to the double jeopardy law because he wasn't declared innocent. As the police arrive to arrest him, she tells him, "I just thought of one other thing. Fuck you."

Tags: plot twist

Review:
"Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" is a curious film - it has the look and feel of a B movie and two stars who had seen better days - Dana Andrews and Joan Fontaine - yet it's a good script directed by Fritz Lang.
A novelist (Andrews) and his future father-in-law, a newspaper magnet (Sidney Blackmer) work together to prove that the death penalty isn't justified by framing Andrews for a recent murder.I thought the story excellent with some exciting twists, though the whole movie has an underplayed (not to mention inexpensive) feeling to it.
For his final Hollywood film, Fritz Lang decided to expose the pitfalls of capital punishment for circumstantial evidence.
Enter Tom Garrett; Austin's son in law to be, and the man that agrees to frame himself for murder...This is perhaps Lang's best assault on the American justice system; he has created a story that is interesting and very plausible and it works a treat in that it gets you thinking about the fact that with this kind of law; someone really could be killed for something they didn't do.
Lang shows us everything about the plot; from the first ideas, to the setting up, all the way to the trial and because of this; the final twist comes as a complete surprise.
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956)An early wide screen black and white drama that marks the end of Fritz Lang's American career and also shows the winding down of two great stars, Joan Fontaine and Dana Andrews.
The owner of an important newspaper Austin Spencer (Sidney Blackmer) opposes to the capital punishment and particularly to the prosecutor Roy Thompson (Philip Bourneuf), who has just succeeded in a trial based on circumstantial evidences.
When a dancer is strangled and the police have no suspect, Austin convinces his future son-in-law, the prominent writer Tom Garrett (Dana Andrews), to plant circumstantial evidences to self-incriminate, while he would hold pictures, receipts and other evidences of his innocence until the very last moment.
When the jury withdraws from the court in the end of the trial to give the sentence, Austin takes the evidences that prove the innocence of Tom from his safe, but has a car accident and dies.
Tom is sentenced to death penalty and tries to convince Susan of his innocence as his last hope."Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" is a great film-noir with a surprising twist in the very end.
With Tom looking for a subject for a second novel, Spencer suggests that they set Tom up for an unsolved murder using circumstantial evidence to prove how easy it would be for the courts to kill an innocent man.
However when Spencer is killed in car crash and none of the evidence can be found then Tom faces the chair.A very interesting concept still needs a good delivery to make for a good film.
In the world of film noir, of course, we know that such a character won't get away with it, but when Lang depicts the tragedy the viewer knows will come, he majestically turns the entire premise on its head.
In his last film in the USA before returning to Germany where he had left to escape the Nazis in the Thirties, Fritz Lang takes up the case of capital punishment and its application, especially when the case is a circumstantial one.
The story has its due ration of twists as Dana Andrews's writer is persuaded by his prospective father-in-law, a crusading press magnate, to set himself up as a burlesque dancer's killer; the two of them will keep records of the plot that are sure to exonerate Andrews before he faces the chair.
Inevitably it all goes wrong, with horrendous consequences for himself and his loved ones.The film is directed by Fritz Lang and is his last American movie, and you can sense his heart wasn't really in the material.
As a whole the film lacks the sense of mystery and atmosphere of the likes of WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS and SCARLET STREET, but that's not to say it's bad; it just could have been even better.None of these things change the fact that the plot's a good 'un, even if there's one twist too many along the way.
Dana Andrews makes for a solid and dependable leading man as always, and it's nice to see Joan Fontaine playing his love interest, even if she has little to do.
Plot about former newspaperman-turned-novelist incriminating himself in a murder he didn't commit (to make points on capital punishment AND come up with a bestseller in the bargain!) is just dumbfoundingly basic, a connect-the-dots noir without any of the genre's suspense, passion or intrigue.
A writer (Dana Andrews) conspires with a feisty anti-capital punishment newspaper owner (Sidney Blackmer) to frame himself for murder and get the death penalty.
There's little else for the old maestro to do but try to follow the ins and outs of the story, which is too unbelievable and predicated on coincidence to really convince with even the twist at the end just too far-fetched and under-powered to finish the film on any kind of high, plus the complete absence throughout of any other suspect makes the final denouement obvious in the extreme.
The acting is solid enough with Dana Andrews and Joan Fontaine only occasionally looking befuddled by the over-intricacies of the narrative but in the end this isn't one of the great director's finest hours and not a film he'll be best remembered for..
Fontaine has one of her weakest roles, but the film's biggest flaw is the way it toys with the viewer's expectations and then fails to deliver that final punch.Definitely one of Fritz Lang's lesser works..
Fritz Lang's last American film before he returned to Germany, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt suffers from the director's clear lack of interest.
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, an intriguing little noir starring Dana Andrews, is by no means a bad film, but is clearly the work of a man handicapped by the system and a film that is pessimistic in its execution.Tom (Andrews), a novelist in search of inspiration for his second book, is approached by his newspaper publisher father-in-law Austin Spencer (Sidney Blackmer) to help aide his opposition of state capital punishment.
Naturally, during the trial, an incident prevents Austin from delivering the evidence and testimony that will prove Tom's innocence, so Tom's disgruntled fiancée Susan (Joan Fontaine) races against time to prevent Tom getting executed on Death Row.Lang had already exposed the fragility of the justice system in his German masterpiece M (1931), and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt begins in suitably grim fashion with the silent execution of an inmate.
You most likely won't see it coming, but it ends the film with plenty of plot- holes to pick at and left me scratching my head at exactly what point the movie was trying to make.
I won't say anything other than the following: Dana Andrews plays Tom Garrett, a novelist who's persuaded by his newspaper mogul friend Austin Spencer (Sidney Blackmer) to pose as the suspect in a murder in order to prove the pitfalls of circumstantial evidence and politics in death penalty cases.
They decide to "frame" the writer (Mr. Andrews) for murder; after he is tried and convicted, they plan to reveal he didn't commit the murder - saving him from the electric chair and showing how easily an innocent man can be killed with circumstantial evidence.
*** Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (9/5/56) Fritz Lang ~ Dana Andrews, Joan Fontaine, Sidney Blackmer, Arthur Franz.
Plot has Andrews as a writer who hatches a plan with his future father-in-law to expose the weakness in using circumstantial evidence to send suspects to the electric chair.
But it's a dangerous game to play, and fate and hidden secrets may have the ultimate say on the outcome?It was Fritz Lang's last American movie, after wowing cinema fans with such excellent pictures like M, The Big Heat, Scarlet Street and While the City Sleeps, it's safe to say that Beyond A Reasonable Doubt is not the great swansong many had reason to expect.
But veering away from our yearnings for technical smarts, film finds Lang determined to prove a bitter based point whilst enjoying dangling his protagonist above a fascinating pit of ifs and maybes.The fascination comes from the court case that underpins the movie, as we observe the law unfurling its might, privy to the dangerous ruse perpetrated by Andrews' daring Guinea Pig. It feels cold in narrative, and most certainly that is intentional because the last fifteen minutes of film pulls the rug from under everyone and finally reveals its hand.
On seeing the first few minutes of this film, started off thinking "Oh no, not another load of anti capital punishment rubbish !" but by taking the time to watch and follow the plot, I realize that my initial judgment had been too hasty.
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Frustrating film about a journalist (Dana Andrews) who decides to show that the current court system has a lot of holes in it by framing himself for the murder of a dancer.
In this case it's story is so contrived and convoluted, compared to the also manipulating David Gale, that you just want to rewind your VCR or DVD player just to see if what you actually saw and heard on the screen the previous 80 or so minutes really happened!A life long opponent to the death penalty newspaper publisher Austin Spencer, Sidney Blackman, comes up with this bright idea of having an innocent man arrested tired and convicted for a murder that he didn't commit.
By having a totally innocent man on the brink of being executed by the state.Austin get's writer Tom Garrett, Dana Andrews, who's engaged to his daughter Susan, Joan Fontaine, to go along with his hair-brain scheme as the person who's to be sent to the electric chair until he comes charging, like the US calvary, to the rescue into the D.A's office with a car-load of evidence exonerating the soon to be fried Tom. Looking in the newspapers Austin finds this story about a dancer being found strangled outside he city.
With no clues for the police to follow up and together with Tom plans to create and plant evidence that it was Tom who murdered her.Having everything documented to prove Tom's innocence Austin has it all under lock and key in his office until just after Tom, like it was planned from the start, was arrested tried and convicted of the dancers murder and is just about to be executed.
Talk about Bad Luck!If you think that the film would now concentrate on finding evidence by Austin's daughter,and Tom's fiancé, Susan as well as his lawyer Jonathan Wilson, Sheppard Strudwick, of his innocence, in order to save Tom from the chair, your wrong dead wrong.
There's an even bigger surprise withing for you, and everyone on the screen, just as the movie is about to end which leaves your brain frozen in a total state of suspended animation.It's hard to imagine that a movie like this was ever made with top stars, Dana Andrews Joan Fontaine etc., being in it but in fact it was and the only reason that any studio was willing to go along in bankrolling it.
Was it because of it's director the legendary Fritz Lang who also came up with the idea of the movie "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" in the first place.
All of this circumstantial evidence is planted and the publisher has all of this info so if Andrews in convicted he will come clean and say it was a ruse to prove how simple it is to send a man to Death Row. Well I knew what was going to happen before it happened.
It is as brutally insensitive to audience weaknesses as Tom Garrett is to his fiancee - like Lang, he creates a plot to prove something; his lack of humanity, though, counteracts the supposed humanitarianism of his cause, even before we discover his real motives.DOUBT is a cruel movie, which makes its 'implausibility' and 'unrealism' (sic?) part of its theme.
"Beyong A Reasonable Doubt" is an offbeat thriller with a fascinating plot about two men who devise a dangerous scheme to expose the flawed nature of the legal system, the uncertain value of circumstantial evidence and the inherent dangers of using the death penalty as a form of punishment for certain crimes.
The clever set-up for the story, a number of entertaining plot twists and a good deal of suspense make the whole film compelling to watch and compensate greatly for some of its shortcomings which appear to be attributable mainly to its low budget.Newspaper publisher Austin Spencer (Sidney Blackmer) is an opponent of capital punishment who's become concerned about the conduct of his local D.A. Roy Thompson (Philip Bourneuf) who regularly uses circumstantial evidence to secure convictions for crimes which are punishable by the death penalty.
Austin's concerns relate to the unreliable nature of the evidence, the risk of an innocent man being executed and the belief that the D.A. is more concerned with gaining publicity to advance his political career than he is about ensuring that the justice system operates fairly.Austin explains his concerns to Tom Garrett (Dana Andrews) a novelist who used to work for him as a reporter and suggests a plan that could lead to an innocent man being sentenced to death for a crime he didn't commit.
If the plan could be carried out successfully and the man's innocence could subsequently be proved, the use of capital punishment could be effectively discredited.Tom, who's engaged to be married to Austin's daughter Susan (Joan Fontaine), agrees to be framed for the murder of a nightclub dancer and as he plants various items of phony evidence, Austin takes photographs which could later be used to prove that Tom's not the murderer.
Her father is an editor of a newspaper who is anti-capital punishment and he convinces Andrews to 'set himself up' for murder using only circumstantial evidence.
This is Lang's final movie in America.He was to make another two-part movie in Germany but the latter can easily be dismissed compare to'beyond a reasonable doubt".Prologue:an execution scene,filmed with an absolute intelligence :instead of focusing on the condemned person,the camera searches those who watch a human being die:priest,wardens,executioner,journalists and among them the hero (Dana Andrews).The black and white cinematography is austere,unspectacular,and it will remains so during the whole projection.
The hero's  soon-to-be father-in-law,who attended the execution too, wants to demonstrate the absurdity of death penalty.He asks Andrews to play the wrong man,guilty of murder;he would bring the proofs or evidences of his innocence just before his execution.To reveal more would make me a spoiler.Suffice to say the suspense is constant,the plot unlikely (Hitchcock's screenplays were too) but fascinating.In France,this movie is praised by the unanimous critics as a peak of the film noir.Give it a chance,it deserves it!.
But, you will be surprised.Dana Andrews, a writer, agrees to take the fall for a murder in order to help his fiancé's father (Sidney Blackmer), a newspaper publisher, make a point against capital punishment.
They plot to fake evidence to make it appear he committed the murder.You're only into the film a few minutes before you begin to think that either Blackmer is guilty himself and is trying to frame Andrews, OR Blackmer will die before being able to prove Andrews innocent.
Tom Garrett (Dana Andrews), a writer looking for an idea, and Austin Spencer (Sidney Blackmer), an editorialist against capital punishment, contrive a bizarre scheme to expose the flaws in the American legal system.
Spencer agrees to withhold the evidence of his innocence until after Garrett is convicted and sentenced to the death penalty.
They did manage to get us pulling for them to somehow make this a better and more enjoyable film.OF THE PRINCIPAL players, Dana Andrews and Joan Fontaine are cast in the leads.
What wonderful plot twists here in this film where a writer is convinced by the newspaper owner to have information planted on him so that he may be arrested in a murder, only for the owner to die in a car crash and the defendant have to go it alone in proving his innocence.This all comes about due to the editor's fierce opposition to the death penalty.
Joan Fontaine, Andrews's fiancé and daughter of Blackmer, doesn't know what to believe at first until she comes around, only to have to reverse herself at film's end.Barbara Nichols really steals the show here in the scenes she is in.
"Beyond A Reasonable Doubt" is the last film that "M" director Fritz Lang made in Hollywood, and the theme of this intriguing but far-fetched law and order thriller concerns the morality of capital punishment.
Capital punishment, crime, and murder obsessed Lang throughout his lengthy career, and this RKO release provided Lang with another opportunity to deal with an innocent man who through a fluke in the justice system may die for a crime that he didn't commit.Tom Garrett (Dana Andrews of "The Ox-Bow Incident") is a former newspaper journalist turned novelist who agrees to test the strength of the justice system when his former boss, newspaper publisher Austin Spencer (Sidney Blackmer of "Duel in the Sun"), thinks that the local district attorney is too good at his trade.
If Tom is condemned to die on the electric chair, Austin will have all the evidence to render the case for capital punishment for Tom a mockery of the system.Fritz Lang directed this RKO 1956 film.
The screenplay by Douglas Morrow offers a satisfying courtroom drama with an ironic twist most viewers do not expect.Dana Andrews is at the center of the picture as Tom Garrett, a successful novelist in his own right, much in love with Susan Spencer.
"Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" was the last Hollywood film of German-born director Fritz Lang.