This week I watched two films from opposite ends of Fritz Lang’s American career: FURY (1936) and BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT (1956) – both examples of film noir in some sense. (I’d never seen BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT; I’d seen FURY before, but not since high school. )
FURY stars Spencer Tracy (in an electrifying performance) as a man who’s mistaken for a kidnapper and targeted by a lynch mob. He manages to escape from the fire they set, but it’s assumed he was killed, and the lynchers are put on trial for murder – and Tracy’s character doesn’t want to reveal he’s alive because he’s vengeful and wants the lynchers executed.
In BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT, the main character (played by Dana Andrews) agrees to frame himself for murder in order to prove how easy it is to convict an innocent man. [Main moral of the story: NEVER DO THIS.] The plan is that as soon as he’s convicted and sentenced, his friend (a crusading reporter who has put him up to this) will come forward with the evidence of his innocence. But once he is indeed convicted and sentenced – to death – his friend dies and the location of the exculpatory evidence is unknown.
Both excellent. Here’s the trailer for FURY:
Here's the trailer for BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT: