He Walked by Night

He Walked by Night is a 1948 American police procedural film noir directed by Alfred L. Werker and an uncredited Anthony Mann.[1] 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, police department employee and World War II veteran who unleashed a crime spree of burglaries, robberies, and shootouts in the Los Angeles area in 1945 and 1946.[2][3]

He Walked by Night
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAlfred L. Werker
Anthony Mann (uncredited)
Produced byBryan Foy
Robert Kane
Screenplay byJohn C. Higgins
Crane Wilbur
Story byCrane Wilbur
StarringRichard Basehart
Scott Brady
Roy Roberts
Jack Webb
Whit Bissell
Music byLeonid Raab
CinematographyJohn Alton
Edited byAlfred DeGaetano
Production
company
Bryan Foy Productions
Distributed byEagle-Lion Films
Release date
  • November 24, 1948 (1948-11-24) (Los Angeles, California)
  • February 6, 1949 (1949-02-06) (New York City, New York)
Running time
79 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

During the film's production, one of the actors, Jack Webb, struck up a friendship with the police technical advisor, Detective Sergeant Marty Wynn, and was inspired by a conversation with Wynn to create the radio and later television program Dragnet.[4]

He Walked by Night was released by Eagle-Lion Films and is notable for the camera work by renowned noir cinematographer John Alton.[5] Today the film is in the public domain.[6]

Plot

On a Los Angeles 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 and becomes an armed robber. During one robbery he fires his semi-automatic pistol, and the police recover the ejected casing. Lee (Jack Webb), a forensics 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) uses that break to gather all of the witnesses to the robberies. They assist Lee in building a composite 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. As police tear gas 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' 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.

The film being shown at a Chicago theater

Cast

Reception

Critical response

Variety 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.[7]

Accolades
  • Locarno International Film Festival: Special Prize, Best Police Film, Alfred L. Werker; 1949.
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See also

References
  1. Hartl, John (November 14, 1996). "Home Movies". San Francisco Examiner. Accessed Jun 9, 2020.
  2. Crazy Like A Fox, Los Angeles Times, June 2, 1947.
  3. Man Continues to Fight Police Despite Wounds, Los Angeles Times, December 21, 1946.
  4. Jones, J.R. (August 24, 2017). "How Dragnet became a PR coup for law enforcement". Accessed: June 9, 2020.
  5. He Walked by Night at the American Film Institute Catalog.
  6. Jamison, Richard T. (July 1994). "A View to a Laser". Film Comment. Accessed June 9, 2020.
  7. Variety . Staff film review, 1948. Accessed: April 29, 2008.
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