SimonJack "He Walked by Night" is a crime-mystery film in the style of a police drama that would later be used in long-running TV series such as "Dragnet" in the 1950s and many more that followed. This film is about a specific true case from the Los Angeles PD files. It proved to be a particularly intriguing one, and hard to crack. For that reason, it keeps one's interest up. We all know who the killer is – that's not a secret to the viewers. But we don't know if, when and how the police will discover who he is, and how if he will come to justice. I remember watching the first "Dragnet" series on TV growing up in the 1950s. Detective Sergeant Joe Friday was known to most Americans far away from LA. It's interesting that the star of that long-running series – and its return to TV a few years later for another four-year run, is in this film. Jack Webb here plays Lee Whitey, the head of the police forensics lab. I think he actually has a more lively character in this film than he played as the matter-of-fact, seemingly droll Sgt. Joe Friday in "Dragnet."This film is entertaining as a crime and police pursuit film. Otherwise, the acting is just so-so and the technical production is average at best.

chaos-rampant This isn't real noir by my definition which is ruled by hallucinative memory, seduction and amused fate. But others define noir as a style, in which case this does have the shadows. It's from that genealogy of noir with roots in westerns and gangster movies with its purer landscape, crisper asphalt and desert god. Viewers who want simple and efficient world mechanics will find this to their taste, no frills here.Supposedly it's just the facts. But if you look at the cinematic facts of the movie?An omniscient Filekeeper narrates. None of the cops is distinguishable as a distinct human being. And no one does anything that doesn't serve the narrated facts on file.. Crushing.It isn't alone that times have changed, though we have since seen this template countless times on TV. It isn't even that the film is populated by simple folks, mostly cops, or the case is exceedingly simple, which it is. The Naked City of the same year takes a similar 'factual' approach but doesn't feel so stolid. It may altogether be that we're hardwired to much faster thinking and simultaneously a more nuanced 'real' behavior. It probably just comes down to stiff acting and script.I was amused by a scene where the police commissioner has gathered all the witnesses in a room to help profile a picture of the suspect. Needless to say the sketched picture turns out exactly like the guy we're looking for. But watch the witnesses as they fill in the details from memory, the cadence, the observations, the clean delivery. It's like you've gone into a bar where everyone has been told to pretend that he's in a bar.Still, remarkable LA. In spite of everything, I might include it in my Los Angeles project.Noir Meter: 1/4

sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** Semidocumentary style Film Nior classic that's a lot like the film "Street with no Name" released in the same year. "He Walked by Night" is based on the real life crimes of former L.A police department employee and WWII vet Erwin "Mechine-Gun" Walker who terrorized the city in the mid 1940's with a string of shootings and armed robberies. Roy Martin, Richard Besehart, has been burglarizing electrical appliances stores in L.A and pretending that what he stole he in fact invented. Martin makes a living, and a damn good one at that, by selling his stolen booty to his fence-man, who in fact doesn't known it's stolen property, electronic dealer Paul Reeves, Whit Bissell.It's when Martin is spotted by an LAPD cop one night hanging around an electronic store and looking like he's up to no good that he gunned him down thus going up the ladder in the world of crime from just a plain garden variety burglar to a wanted all points, in the state, cop killer! With every cop in the LAPD out looking for him Martin is able to avoid them in slipping into the vast 700 mile L.A sewer system thus preventing him from being captured. Despite all the precautions he takes Martin makes the mistake of going back to his "Fence-Man" Paul Reeves to make sure, by bashing his skull in and cracking a couple of his ribs, that he doesn't turn him into the police. That tips the cops on the case Sgt. Marty Brennan, Scott Brady,& Sgt. Chuck Jones,James Cardwell, off to Martin's identity. That's not after Jones ended up being brutally attacked and beaten by Martin when he spotted him and his partner Sgt. Brennan hiding out in Reeves' office.***SPOILERS*** With his cover blown thanks to the US Post Office in tracking him down in this out of the way L.A bungalow colony Martin is now not only on the run but has his secret hideout, the sewer system, found out as well. Like a cornered rat having nowhere to go with his escape route, a manhole cover, blocked by an LAPD patrol car all he can do now is shoot it out with the oncoming police that in Martin's case turns out to be fatal.The sewer system scenes in the movie were later used, in 1956, in the Lon Cheney Jr horror suspense movie "Indestrutable Man" where he played the just brought back from the dead, through a massive electronic jolt, zombie-like mass murderer Butcher Benton. The movie "He Walked by Night" also has a 27 year old Jack Webb playing police forensic specialist Lee Whitey. Webb became so interested in police work during the filming that with the support of LAPD cop Sgt. Marty Wynn, who served as a police technical adviser in the film, he came up with the idea for his blockbuster radio and later TV police drama series "Dragnet".

Alex da Silva The film starts with Roy (Richard Basehart) killing a policeman. No-one deserves to die but this policeman was on his way home so what was he doing interfering with someone else's business, especially as we are told his dying words were "he seemed such a nice kid". Well, what was he doing stopping him then? Anyway, the film follows the police department's search for the killer. They have little to work on and Roy is quite a prolific offender.This started off with one of those annoying narration intros by someone who sounds like he is a cartoon character narrating "Whacky Races". The cast are good with Richard Basehart standing out in the lead role. There are many memorable scenes including the beginning sequence where Roy shoots the jobsworth policeman, the scene where Roy removes the bullet from where he has been shot - you can feel the pain, and the end sequence from when Roy is in his house and he senses the police closing in which includes a memorable chase through the sewers. I can't remember any music being played during the film and this adds to the realism and tension in every scene.It's a good film that's worth watching again and it's based on a true story.