RKO
Radio Pictures, 80m 25s
Should
anyone be sentenced to death based upon circumstantial evidence? That is the
major question posed in BEYOND A
REASONABLE DOUBT, a noir-stricken
social problem drama that was released in the twilight of the film noir's heyday. Director Fritz
Lang's prior films include some of the most revered instances of genre
filmmaking (M [1931], SCARLET STREET [1945], THE BIG HEAT [1953]), so his final
American production caught me off guard with somewhat stagy direction, an
overly deliberate pace and seemingly textbook plot mechanics. Little did I
realize I was being set up in the best possible way by Lang and screenwriter
Douglas Morrow.
The
narrative commences on a somber note with the condemnation of a man to the
electric chair. Among the spectators at the event are Austin Spencer (Sidney
Blackmer), an idealistic newspaper man, and his future son-in-law Tom Garrett
(Dana Andrews), a former journalist with a hit novel under his belt. After the
execution, Austin explains to Tom the conviction that resulted in a death
sentence was based exclusively on circumstantial evidence. While Austin
declares his firm stance against capital punishment, enter District Attorney
Roy Thompson (Philip Bourneuf), who holds the opposite view on the subject.
Roy's career is on the rise thanks to his reputation for squeezing guilty
verdicts out of juries. He is the type of chief prosecutor who is supremely
skilled at making small details seem crucial, and that talent might make him a governor
someday.
After
Tom realizes slow progress on his second novel has gotten him into disfavor
with his publisher, Tom is talked into a potential solution that would serve a
dual purpose. Tom is to play the part of innocent man convicted on
circumstantial evidence, with Austin prepared to swoop down at the final hour
to exonerate Tom with unquestionable evidence the author is an innocent man.
Thereby Austin proves the validity of his long-held argument against capital
punishment, and Tom avoids the sophomore slump with all the ingredients for a
potent follow-up to his original novel. When police discover the murdered body
of a burlesque dancer ("pretty Patty Gray" according to the exploitative
news article), it seems everything is in place for Tom and Austin to draw from
their secret playbook. The beauty of BEYOND
A REASONABLE DOUBT is the manner in which Fritz Lang engineers dramatic
simplicity while he builds a fairly complex narrative engine. Like a practiced
attorney, Lang encourages the viewer to form conclusions, but then he forces us
to challenge them. When Tom indicates he would rather be in the bedroom working
on Susan than book research, Austin looks in disgust at the couple. Why? Later
Austin casually smokes a pipe and leaves a paper trail. Is it just part of the
setup of Tom, or does it imply something else?
In
addition to the social commentary announced in its title, BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT fires a warning shot against
self-centered behavior. The three major male characters act almost entirely out
of self interest. Roy wants to further his career on the electrocuted bodies of
convicted criminals, Austin wishes to prove the limitations of circumstantial
evidence and the concept of reasonable doubt, Tom wants to get his next writing
project completed so he can get married. Furthermore, both Austin and Tom pay
dearly for deceptive behavior when critical evidence is torched by the noir motif of fate. By setting himself
up to be convicted for murder, Tom is a fascinating noir protagonist in that he willfully volunteers for the punishment
we suspect awaits him. He essentially sentences himself to death by
electrocution in the hope he will be spared before the switch of death is
pulled. The ideally-named Club Zombie is more than just a crummy noir venue populated by tough-talking
dames; its branding claims Tom as among noir's
walking dead men. People sometimes are not what they portray, and the noir doppelgänger theme gets a real
workout here, with Tom assuming multiple identities and the murdered burlesque
dancer known by two different names.
Without
the film noir foundation outlined
above, there may have been too many implausibilities to take BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT seriously.
Could a man risk going to the chair over a novel, which may or may not be a
success? Would that man not have too many worries that something could go
wrong? And how could he be so insensitive as to not let his fiancée Susan
Spencer (Joan Fontaine) in on the master plan? In light of the film noir's cynical view of human
nature, it is easy to look beyond those questions and ask better ones. How do
some people manage to convince themselves they can control not only their own
lives, but the lives of others? How arrogant does a person have to be to behave
that way? The world is far too complex for anybody to exhibit much control over
anything. Nonetheless, sometimes we attempt to reduce that complexity to simple
cause and effect, yet there always will be variables we either cannot control
or, more likely, never consider. The resolution of the narrative does little to
resolve the moral conundrum introduced in the opening act. Instead one is left
with the idea that human instincts are far too egocentric to solve a puzzle as
complex as capital punishment.
Classic
female archetypes are ingrained so deeply in the noir film often there is little to consider beyond wives and
whores. Susan is the type of girl a man wishes to marry, the gals at the Club
Zombie serve as her polar opposites. Distinctions are drawn clearly in terms of
environments, attire, intelligence and each woman's command of the English
language. The lower-tier woman is characterized by base instincts, as when
"dazzling" but irritatingly loudmouthed blonde Dolly Moore (Barbara
Nichols) is impressed by a large roll of cash Tom flashes. Her dancing colleague
Terry Larue (Robin Raymond) does separate herself somewhat on an intelligence
level when she rightly becomes suspicious of Tom. Terry gets the best line of
the film when she asks Dolly, "...what's he shopping around in the
basement for?" Terry does not have any illusions that they are anything
other than what they really are: dime-store
showgirls. That sense of streetwise awareness makes her more likely to survive
tough noir terrain than her pleasant
but bubble-brained coworker Joan Williams (Joyce Taylor).
The
single-layered Blu-ray version of BEYOND
A REASONABLE DOUBT available via Warner Archive is framed at 2.0:1 (RKO-Scope).
It must have been derived from fairly well-preserved source material, though
frames appear to drop out at times. This transfer may not be perfect, but it is
likely the best interpretation we are going to get of the rather
straightforward but effective cinematography of William E. Snyder. I wish the
score by Herschel Burke Gilbert did not coach the viewer on how to react. The
only extra on this disc is a spoiler-laced trailer (2m 43s). As of this
writing, I have not had an opportunity to view THE MAN WHO DARED (1946), a film that by all accounts tells a
strikingly similar tale.
BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT was
repurposed for 2009, with director Peter Hyams at the helm. This remake for the
most part was skewered by critics, most of whom seemed more determined to
establish they were smarter than the material than offer any insightful
criticism. Though I agree the remake’s conclusion feels overly telegraphed, the
storyline is decidedly more pessimistic than the 1956 original. Film noir fans should appreciate how the
2009 version depicts modern-day legal corruption and dishonest journalism. In
some respects, the remake is even more noir
than the source of its inspiration.
