Beyond Reasonable Doubt

 Beyond Reasonable Doubt still


Beyond Reasonable Doubt - 1980





Endeavour Productions - 115 min.
DVD UPCs #9415600112236

Cast: David Hemmings, John Hargreaves, Tony Barry, Martyn Sanderson, Grant Tilly, Diana Rowan, Ian Watkin, Terence Cooper, Bruno Lawrence.
Screenplay: David Yallop; Original Music: Dave Fraser; Photography: Alun Bollinger; Editor: Michael Horton
Producer: John Barnett; Director: John Laing.
A docudrama of New Zealand's most famous murder case, based on the book of the same title by British author David Yallop. In June 1970 someone kills Pukekawa farmers Jeanette and Harvey Crew. Police inspector Bruce Hutton suspects neighbour Arthur Allen Thomas, and to secure a conviction, plants evidence. Thomas undergoes two trials and is convicted both times, but later, when proof of the plantings is revealed, is pardoned and paid $1 million compensation.

Censor Rating: PG - Review Rating: B-


AVAILABILITY OF VHS OR DVD COPIES

Originally available in PAL and NTSC vhs. No known sources for new vhs. Used copies are occationally located from auctions for under $10us.
An R4 PAL dvd is available from New Zealand sources for about $30nz. It is also available from Australian sources at about $25au. DVD extras include a 2:30min. trailer and a 42min. "Behind the Scenes documentary made by TVNZ.
NOTE: Check the "VHS Sale" page for used copies.


SOUNDTRACK ON AUDIO CD

There are no known soundtrack CDs of this title.

Link to soundtrack sample download


REVIEWS

Dennis Schwartz Review

Time Out Review

New Zealand Film Archive Info and Reviews

NY Times Review by Janet Maslin

Peter Harcourt's Sequence Review

"For 10 years New Zealanders have been living with the murder mystery surrounding the deaths of Jeanette and Harvey Crewe. After an unprecedented two trials, Arthur Allan Thomas was found guilty. He was pardoned late in 1979 and currently a Royal Commission is sitting to determine how justice could have been miscarried so badly. This public interest and topicality will all make for lively box office action in its homeland, but the pic will have to stand on its own merits for the rest of the world's moviegoers who will be hearing about the Crewe murders for the first time." - (Variety, 1 October 1980)

"We ache for that happy ending, for the restoration of order, sanity, and justice. Because this is a real case, its uneven, accumulating, near- documentary suspense has a piercing, existential edge. The justice that's finally served is far different from what we anticipated at the outset of the film, and some viewers will undoubtedly prefer a tidier, more satisfactory conclusion. So, undoubtedly, would have the real- life participants" - (Jan Hoffman, "Anatomy of a Murder", The Village Voice, December 6, 1983)


TRAILER & AWARDS

Official Trailer

1982 - Winner of the Grand Prix at the Cognac Film Festival of Thrillers, France.


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