Beyond Reasonable Doubt

Beyond Reasonable Doubt reconstructs the events surrounding a notorious New Zealand miscarriage of justice. Farmer Arthur Allan Thomas was jailed for the murder of Harvey and Jeanette Crewe. Directed by John Laing, and starring Australian John Hargreaves (as Thomas) and Englishman David Hemmings (Blowup, Barbarella), the drama  benefitted from immense public interest in the case. Thomas was pardoned while the film was in pre-production, and he saw some scenes being made. It became New Zealand's most successful film until Goodbye Pork Pie in 1981.

[Hemmings gave] a notable performance as a hardbitten and vindictive policeman, doing his best to frame a suspect, in the New Zealand-made Beyond Reasonable Doubt (1980) — a part in which he embodied a malign authority figure startlingly in contrast to the iconoclastic youthfulness with which he had been identified in earlier times.

– Tim Pulleine, in an obituary for English actor David Hemmings, 5 December 2003

Key Cast & Crew

Martyn Sanderson

As: Len Demler

John Laing

Director

Ian Watkin

As: Barrister Kevin Ryan

John Barnett

Producer

Diana Rowan

As: Vivien Thomas

John Hargreaves

As: Arthur Allan Thomas