''He Walked by Night'' is a 1948 American
police procedural
The police show, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the protagonist(s), as contrasted with other genres that focus on eit ...
film noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American '' ...
directed by
Alfred L. Werker
Alfred L. Werker (December 2, 1896 – July 28, 1975) was a film director whose work in movies spanned from 1917 through 1957. After a number of film production jobs and assistant directing, Werker co-directed his first film, ''Ridin' the Wind ...
and an uncredited
Anthony Mann
Anthony Mann (born Emil Anton Bundsmann; June 30, 1906 – April 29, 1967) was an American film director and stage actor.
Mann initially started as a theatre actor appearing in numerous stage productions. In 1937, he moved to Hollywood where ...
. The film, shot in
semidocumentary tone, was loosely based on newspaper accounts of the real-life actions of
Erwin "Machine-Gun" Walker, a former
Glendale, California
Glendale is a city in the San Fernando Valley and Verdugo Mountains regions of Los Angeles County, California, United States. At the 2020 U.S. Census the population was 196,543, up from 191,719 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth-larges ...
police department employee and
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
veteran who unleashed a crime spree of burglaries, robberies, and shootouts in the Los Angeles area in 1945 and 1946.
During the film's production, one of the actors,
Jack Webb
John Randolph Webb (April 2, 1920 – December 23, 1982) was an American actor, television producer, director, and screenwriter, who is most famous for his role as Sgt. Joe Friday in the ''Dragnet'' franchise, which he created. He was a ...
, struck up a friendship with the police technical advisor,
Detective
A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...
Sergeant
Sergeant ( abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other ...
Marty Wynn, and was inspired by a conversation with Wynn to create the radio and later television program ''
Dragnet''.
''He Walked by Night'' was released by
Eagle-Lion Films and is notable for the camera work by renowned ''noir''
cinematographer
The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...
John Alton. Today the film is in the
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired ...
. It is aired frequently on the
over-the-air channel,
Movies! network.
Plot
On a
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
street, Officer Rawlins, a patrolman on his way home from work, stops a man he suspects of being a burglar and is shot and mortally wounded. The minor clues lead nowhere. Two police detectives, Sergeants Marty Brennan (
Scott Brady) and Chuck Jones (
James Cardwell), are assigned to catch the killer, Roy Morgan (
Richard Basehart), a brilliant mystery man with no known criminal past who is hiding in a Hollywood bungalow and listening to police calls on his custom radio in an attempt to avoid capture. His only relationship is with his little dog.
Roy consigns burgled electronic equipment to Paul Reeves (
Whit Bissell) and, on his fifth sale, is nearly caught when he shows up to collect on his property. Reeves tells police that the suspect is a mystery man named Roy Martin. The case crosses the paths of Brennan and Jones, who stake out Reeves's office to arrest and question Roy. He suspects a trap, however, and in a brief shootout, he shoots and paralyzes Jones. Jones wounds Roy, who performs surgery on himself to remove the bullet and to avoid going to a hospital, where his gunshot wound would be reported to the police. With his knowledge of police procedures, Roy changes his
modus operandi
A ''modus operandi'' (often shortened to M.O.) is someone's habits of working, particularly in the context of business or criminal investigations, but also more generally. It is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as "mode (or manner) of o ...
and becomes an armed robber. During one robbery he fires his semi-automatic pistol, and the police recover the ejected casing. Lee (
Jack Webb
John Randolph Webb (April 2, 1920 – December 23, 1982) was an American actor, television producer, director, and screenwriter, who is most famous for his role as Sgt. Joe Friday in the ''Dragnet'' franchise, which he created. He was a ...
), a
forensics
Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and crimin ...
specialist, matches the ejector marks on the casing to those recovered in the killing of Officer Rawlins and the wounding of Jones, connecting all three shootings to one suspect.
Captain Breen (
Roy Roberts
Roy Roberts (born Roy Barnes Jones, March 19, 1906 – May 28, 1975) was an American character actor. Over his more than 40-year career, he appeared in more than nine hundred productions on stage and screen.
Life and career
Born in Tampa ...
) uses that break to gather all of the witnesses to the robberies. They assist Lee in building a
composite
Composite or compositing may refer to:
Materials
* Composite material, a material that is made from several different substances
** Metal matrix composite, composed of metal and other parts
** Cermet, a composite of ceramic and metallic materials ...
photo of the killer. Reeves then identifies Roy from the composite. However, Roy hides in Reeves's car and attempts to intimidate him into revealing details of the police investigation. He barely eludes a stakeout of Reeves's house. Because the police do not realize that Roy has inside knowledge of their work, the case goes nowhere. Breen takes Brennan off the case in an attempt to shake him up. Jones convinces his partner to stop viewing the case personally and to use his head. Plodding, methodical followup by Brennan, who uses the composite photograph, results in information that Roy, whose actual name is Roy Morgan, worked for a local police department as a civilian radio technician before he was drafted into the Army. Brennan tracks him down through post office mail carriers and disguises himself as a milkman to get a close look at Morgan and his apartment.
The police surround and raid the apartment that night, but Morgan, alerted by his dog's barking, flees through the attic and uses the Los Angeles storm drainage tunnel system as a means of escape. The film continues with a
dragnet and chase through the drainage tunnels. Roy is finally cornered by the police in a passage when his exit is blocked by the wheel of a police car atop a
manhole cover
A manhole cover or maintenance hole cover is a removable plate forming the lid over the opening of a manhole, an opening large enough for a person to pass through that is used as an access point for an underground vault or pipe. It is designed t ...
. As police
tear gas
Tear gas, also known as a lachrymator agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the early commercial aerosol, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the eye to produce tears. In ...
affects Roy, he staggers and fires one last time at them. He is then shot down and killed.
The final scene is notable for its resemblance to the final scene in ''The Third Man'' in which
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
' character is chased through the sewers of Vienna. No known connection between the films has been established; ''He Walked by Night'', which was first shown in the US in November 1948, predates ''The Third Man'' by about a year.
Cast
*
Richard Basehart as Roy Martin/Roy Morgan
*
Scott Brady as Sgt. Marty Brennan
*
Roy Roberts
Roy Roberts (born Roy Barnes Jones, March 19, 1906 – May 28, 1975) was an American character actor. Over his more than 40-year career, he appeared in more than nine hundred productions on stage and screen.
Life and career
Born in Tampa ...
as Captain Breen
*
Whit Bissell as Paul Reeves, electronics dealer
*
James Cardwell as Sgt. Chuck Jones
*
Jack Webb
John Randolph Webb (April 2, 1920 – December 23, 1982) was an American actor, television producer, director, and screenwriter, who is most famous for his role as Sgt. Joe Friday in the ''Dragnet'' franchise, which he created. He was a ...
as Lee Whitey
*
Byron Foulger
Byron Kay Foulger (August 27, 1898 – April 4, 1970) was an American character actor who over a 50-year career performed in hundreds of stage, film, and television productions.
Early years
Born in Ogden, Utah, Byron was the second of four ...
as Freddie (uncredited)
*
John Dehner
John Dehner (DAY-ner) (born John Dehner Forkum, also credited Dehner Forkum; November 23, 1915February 4, 1992) was an American stage, radio, film, and television actor. From the late 1930s to the late 1980s, he amassed a long list of performan ...
as Assistant Bureau Chief (uncredited)
*
Kenneth Tobey
Kenneth Jesse Tobey (March 23, 1917 – December 22, 2002) was an extremely prolific American actor who performed in hundreds of productions during a career that spanned more than half a century, including his role as the star of the 1957-1 ...
as Detective (uncredited)
*
John McGuire as Officer Robert Rawlins (uncredited)
*
Reed Hadley
Reed Hadley (born Reed Herring, June 25, 1911 – December 11, 1974) was an American film, television and radio actor.
Early life
Hadley was born in Petrolia, Texas, to Bert Herring, an oil well driller, and his wife Minnie. Hadley had one ...
as Narrator
*
Dorothy Adams as Paranoid Housewife (uncredited)
Reception
Critical response
''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' magazine gave the film a positive review:
''He Walked by Night'' is a high-tension crime thriller, supercharged with violence but sprung with finesse. Top credits for this film's wallop is shared equally by the several scripters, director Alfred Werker and a small, but superb cast headed by Richard Basehart...Starting in high gear, the film increases in momentum until the cumulative tension explodes in a powerful crime-doesn't pay climax. Striking effects are achieved through counterpoint of the slayer's ingenuity in eluding the cops and the police efficiency in bringing him to book. High-spot of the film is the final sequence which takes place in LA's storm drainage tunnel system where the killer tries to make his getaway. With this role, Basehart establishes himself as one of Hollywood's most talented finds in recent years. He heavily overshadows the rest of the cast, although Scott Brady, Roy Roberts and Jim Cardwell, as the detectives, deliver with high competence. Film is also marked by realistic camera work and a solid score.''Variety ''
Staff film review, 1948. Accessed: April 29, 2008.
Accolades
*
Locarno International Film Festival
The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, s ...
: Special Prize, Best Police Film, Alfred L. Werker; 1949.
See also
*
List of films in the public domain in the United States
Most films are subject to copyright, but those listed here are believed to be in the public domain in the United States. This means that no government, organization, or individual owns any copyright over the work, and as such it is common property ...
References
External links
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:He Walked By Night
1948 films
1940s crime thriller films
American crime thriller films
American black-and-white films
American police detective films
Procedural films
Film noir
Films directed by Alfred L. Werker
Films directed by Anthony Mann
Eagle-Lion Films films
Films set in Los Angeles
Films shot in Los Angeles
1940s police procedural films
1940s English-language films
1940s American films