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
Endeavour Productions
Made in association with Fay, Richwhite & Co, Brierley Investments and Bob Jones
Summary of Arthur Allan Thomas' legal battles, Stuff, September 2022
Interview with Arthur Allan Thomas, The NZ Herald, April 2011
Rochelle Crewe on the 2014 police review of the investigation The NZ Herald, July 2014
Death of Bruce Hutton, lead detective on the case, The NZ Herald, April 2013
Article on why police weren't charged in the case, The NZ Herald, May 2010
Report of the 1980 Royal Commission of Inquiry into the case
Obituary for Beyond Reasonable Doubt actor David Hemmings, The Guardian, December 2003
Obituary for David Yallop, writer of the book the film was based on, Sunday News, September 2018
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