Beyond Reasonable Doubt

Beyond Reasonable Doubt is compulsive viewing for anyone interested in New Zealand movies or New Zealand justice

Beyond Reasonable Doubt, New Zealand, 1980

Endeavour Films
Director: John Laing
Producer: John Barnett
Screenplay: David Yallop, based on his book
Director of photography: Alun Bollinger
Camera operator: Paul Leach
Editor: Michael Horton
Sound: Don Reynolds, Brian Shennan

With: David Hemmings (Inspector Hutton), John Hargreaves (Arthur Allan Thomas), Tony Barry (Detective John Hughes), Grant Tilly (David Morris), Martyn Sanderson (Len Demler), Diana Rowan (Vivien Thomas), Ian Watkin (Kevin Ryan), Terence Cooper (Paul Temm), Marshall Napier (Constable Wyllie), John Bach (Detective Murray Jeffries), Bruce Allpress (Detective Stan Keith), Bruno Lawrence (Pat Vesey)

35mm, 127 mintues, PG

Watch the trailer for Beyond Reasonable Doubt (9.09MB; 3.22 minutes)

“A humdinger of a murder mystery that segues into a gripping courtroom drama that will keep moviegoers at the edge of their seats.” – Hollywood Reporter

“Beyond Reasonable Doubt is compulsive viewing for anyone interested in New Zealand movies or New Zealand justice.” – Gilbert Peterson, The Dominion, 22 September 1980

“Beyond Reasonable Doubt makes powerful and compelling cinema, both for its subject matter and high standard of production.” — Marc Knowles, The Evening Post, 20 September 1980

“On 22 June 1970 Harvey and Jeanette Crewe were reported missing from their bloodstained Pukekawa farmhouse. After three months’ intensive search their bodies were found in the Waikato River. Beyond Reasonable Doubt dramatizes what followed as, with little to go on, police suspicion focused first on Jeanette’s father, Len Demler... The investigation shifted focus when police inspector Bruce Hutton, rounding up the district’s 22 rifles, finds two which could have been the murder weapon. Ignoring evidence pointing to one local rifle owner with a reputation for violence, Hutton homes in on ingenuous farmer Arthur Thomas. Thomas’ arrest, conviction and subsequent re-trial provide the rest of the narrative. In the final scene Thomas, after nine years in jail and with his marriage over, returns home on 17 December 1979 after being pardoned by Prime Minister Robert Muldoon. In his investigative book David Yallop calls Thomas’ prosecution ‘a game where evidence was put in and taken out to serve one purpose: that Thomas was convicted’ and the investigation ‘one of the most crass, banal, amateur investigations ever undertaken in the country’s history.’ His screenplay follows the book with a carefully constructed view of justice wilfully miscarried… Yallop’s book set in motion the events leading to Thomas’ eventual pardon. As the film’s narrative unfolds drama and docudrama overlap… the restrained visual style of documentary realism makes for compelling viewing… Ends are tied up hurriedly because Thomas’ pardon and release, which came fortuitously at the end of 1979, took place when Beyond Reasonable Doubt was in postproduction. Benefiting from the immense public interest in the case, Beyond Reasonable Doubt was New Zealand’s most successful commercial film until the release of Goodbye Pork Pie.” — Helen Martin, New Zealand Film 1912-1996

“It almost takes too long to figure out the secret identity of Beyond Reasonable Doubt: that, in its odd way, this is a terrific small film… A New Zealand farming couple has been murdered, their toddler discovered five days later in her crib, sleepy and mysteriously well-fed; dogged Inspector Hutton is already scouring the countryside for clues and suspects… Both director John Laing and the Inspector have meticulously assembled psychological and forensic clues pointing to the grandfather, a crabby tightwad who had scarcely seemed upset by the deaths… But the tower of logical conclusions begins to lean… Rebuffed, the Inspector directs his team to tighten the noose around the murdered woman’s childhood sweetheart – Arthur Allan Thomas, a beaming, affable farmer who appears to be tenderly in love with his own wife. We cannot believe Arthur could have done it. Yet Hemmings has again collected irrefutable evidence. And all along, Beyond Reasonable Doubt has been gradually switching genres: from a murder mystery with a standard detective-hero, to a desperate, intriguing courtroom drama. Based on a true-life murder case that began on 22 June 1970, near Pukekawa, the film is really about a fascinating tactical battle – with Hemmings and his cops on one side, and Arthur Thomas, his lawyers, wife, and the audience on the other. The case lasted nine long, heartbreaking years, and amounted to the near-strangulation of another life. When director Laing finally shows his hand, Beyond Reasonable Doubt, as both a film and a court case, becomes truly gripping. A portrait of an entire community emerges in tiny, telling details. The farming country looks like a bleak, lonely, dull place, and the people dreary and monosyllabic; the grandfather seems more believably crusty and private than actually coldhearted. For amusement, a swaggering farm worker reportedly breaks the backs of sheep. Hemmings is revealed as a small bully in an even smaller environment: like a maniacally revved-up junior high football coach, he huddles with his cop squad and teaches them to outflank Arthur’s lawyers by suppressing and inventing evidence. The Inspector is less concerned about who really did murder the couple than that his own detective work be found flawless. We have grown from mildly curious to terribly anxious: director Laing points to evidence that could easily clear and condemn, and then tells us that none of it comes out during the trials. As the flat voices conduct business in an official manner, the rare, emotionally vivid touches are that much more effective: the unsuspecting Thomases in a squad car, excited to be part of the big investigation, eagerly smoothing down each other’s cowlicks and collars; Mrs Thomas sobbing guiltily in the arms of her lover; the neighbours roundly cheering the lawyer just because he’s managed to secure a new trial date; Hemming’s deadly, smug victory toast. Once the director assumes more control over the rhythm and editing of the film, both Hemmings and Hargreaves give very fine performances. There are stretches when we long for the conventions of a fictitious murder-mystery to get everyone out of this mess: for Hemmings to slip up, for new proof to come to light, even for the real murderer to confess. 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 satisfying conclusion. So, undoubtedly, would have the real-life participants.” — Jan Hoffman, Village Voice

Screenings: Beyond Reasonable Doubt screened on 8 February 2006; and on 9 August 2006 as part of the Friends of the Film Archive's selection