He Walked by Night (1948)

Director:

Alfred L. Werker

Writers:

Crane Wilbur (story)
Crane Wilbur (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

9 August 1949 (Sweden)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Savage! ... Searing! ... True!

Plot:

This film-noir piece, told in semi-documentary style, follows police on the hunt for a resourceful criminal who shoots and kills a cop.

Plot Keywords:

Police | Criminal | Electronics | Murderer | Murder

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Richard Basehart	...	Roy Martin / Roy Morgan
Scott Brady	...	Sgt. Marty Brennan
Roy Roberts	...	Capt. Breen
Whit Bissell	...	Paul Reeves
James Cardwell	...	Sgt. Chuck Jones (as Jimmy Cardwell)
Jack Webb	...	Lee

Also Known As:

The L.A. Investigator (USA) (working title)
Twenty-Nine Clues (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

79 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Norway:16 (1952) | Finland:K-16 | Germany:12 | USA:Approved (PCA #13565) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Central Avenue, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Bryan Foy Productions

Trivia:

'He Walked By Night' was a historical film in that it was the first to use the Los Angeles Water System and its series of canals as a backdrop.

Goofs:

Continuity: A revolver ejects its spent casings only if the shooter does so manually, which Richard Baseheart didn't do, therefore the police could not have even had them to compare with the fired casings from the automatic. An even bigger blunder was the photo comparing the two fired shells, they were clearly marked .380 auto, an entirely different round than the .38 special or .45 auto that the police claimed were fired from the same gun. So now there were three different guns used to create this technical error.

Quotes:

Narrator: [Referring to the composite sketch] They showed that picture to the inmates of jails and prisons, to men with a wide acquaintance among the cat burglars and the violence boys, informers, con men, and sharpshooters - those on the fringe of crime and those deep in the rackets. Many wanted to help - nobody could! No one in the Underworld recognized that mysterious face. He was as unknown as if he had lived in the 16th Century.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003)

Definitely the progenitor of Dragnet

As related on http://www.adam-12.com/webb.htm ...

- quote -

In 1949, Jack landed the role of Lt. Lee Jones in the film

"He walked by Night." After meeting LAPD Sgt. Marty Wynn,

a technical advisor for the show, Jack got the idea to develop

Dragnet after being invited to review LAPD case files.

- end quote -

Several elements associated with _Dragnet_ appear already in _He Walked_: not only the stolid narration but also the devotion of time to routine and even futile work, the interviewing of oddballs, the explication of technology, and the incidental chit-chat about the family.

One interesting point is that we never get to find out the killer's motive: even at the expense of the audience's aesthetic satisfaction, the killer's point of view is denied to us. The only lessons we can learn from the movie are the lessons that the police learn.