DVD: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000CNY4Z/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=d... http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/
He Walked by Night (1948) is a black-and-white police procedural film noir, crediting Alfred L. Werker as director. The film, shot in semidocumentary tone, was allegedly based on the real-life actions of Erwin "Machine-Gun" Walker.
During 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.
He Walked by Night was released by Eagle-Lion Films and is notable for the camera work by renowned noir cinematographer John Alton. Today the film is in public domain.
On a Los Angeles street, Officer Hollis, 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 (Brady) and Chuck Jones (Cardwell), are assigned to catch the killer, Roy Morgan (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' office to arrest and question Roy. He suspects a trap, however, and in a brief shootout shoots and paralyzes Jones. Jones wounds Roy, who performs surgery on himself to remove the bullet and avoid going to a hospital, where his gunshot wound would be reported to the police.
With his knowledge of police procedures, Roy changes his MO and becomes an armed robber. During one robbery he fires his 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 Sgt. Jones, connecting all three shootings to one suspect.
Captain Breen (Roy Roberts) uses this 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' car and attempts to intimidate him into revealing details of the police investigation. He barely eludes a stakeout of Reeves' 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 follow-up by Brennan, using the composite photograph, results in information that Roy, whose actual name is Roy Morgan, worked for a local police department as a civilian radio dispatcher before being 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, forewarned by the barking of his dog, escapes through the attic and uses the Los Angeles sewer system as a means of escape. The film continues with a dragnet and chase through the sewers. Roy is finally cornered by the police in a passage blocked by the wheel of a police car. As the police shoot tear gas at Roy, he staggers and attempts to fire at them. He is then shot down and killed. The final scene is notable for its resemblance to the final sceen in The Third Man in which Orson Welles is chased through the sewers of Vienna. No known connection between the films has been established..
Cast * Richard Basehart as Roy Martin/Roy Morgan * Scott Brady as Sgt. Marty Brennan * Roy Roberts as Captain Breen * Whit Bissell as Paul Reeves an electronics dealer * James Cardwell as Sgt. Chuck Jones * Jack Webb as Lee
Loading...
1:45:37
The North Star: Anne Baxter, Dana Andrews, Walter Huston, and Walter Brennan (1943 Movie)by nologorecords140,840 views
BiLL GATES it,?,4'oFFRAI roYALe out sOs o;;²FraisTOnei4''sHERe.
thetonei 2 months ago
If they wanted his finger prints they should have checked his car. When he shot the police man and ran to his car he reached down and put his hand on the fender of the police car when he went around it. He got into his car touching the door when he opened it and put his hand outside the window touching the door when he closed it. His prints would be on the steering wheel also. Great movie to watch. Thanks for the uploads. P.S. the correction checker helps a lot.
gene19431 3 months ago
ل حووووووووووووووووووووووول
Ryoonah 3 months ago
Love this~ classic
jacobyrad 6 months ago
Johnny Rosselli of JFK and Mafia fame and whose dismembered body (legs and head cut off and body stuffed into an oil drum ) and dumped in Dumb Foundling Bay(?) had something to do with this film. Was he the assistant director? There is a scene where a police man sitting in a car is approached by a gunman. The cop gets out of the car goes toward the man and is shot to death. Shades of the Oswald / Officer Tippit encounter???
DAVlDMlCHEALROBlNSON 6 months ago
Also noticed the ending, where the criminal is trying to escape through the sewer system in LA. This movie came a year or two before "The Third Man" which featured a similar climax. Some borrowing, perhaps?
WSenator1 6 months ago
This is the origin of "Dragnet." Jack Webb, in a small roll as a crime lab technician, got the idea of dramatizing stories using real police files, as well as using a documentary style of storytelling. Webb even used the last line of the introduction (the names have been changed etc.) as one of the signatures of "Dragnet."
WSenator1 6 months ago
Basehart proves he is one of the greats.
ronoman88 6 months ago
"How about my army discharge? I got it right here" Lol...Can't believe i finally found it, thank you @nologorecords
TONY1981Boy 6 months ago
Thanks for the upload - I love movies from this era.
Runcycle09 10 months ago