He Walked by Night
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
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' 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 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 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 technician 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 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 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 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.

Review: "He Walked By Night" is a turning point in the detective movie, displaying the real-life police procedures used in searching for a criminal, which include teamwork and technology, and showing far more realistic characters than other flicks did.
Though Scott Brady was probably too young (24) as the lead detective in this movie, his realistic performance is a welcomed relief from the over-the-top camp performances from actors in other detective movies, such as Dick Powell's in "Murder My Sweet" and Alan Ladd's in every one of his detective movies.The realistic technique of this movie was so innovative, that Jack Webb (who has his first good-sized role in this movie) used this technique in making his 1940s radio show "Dragnet." When he brought "Dragnet" to television in 1951, the style of the show influenced countless other shows, launching realistic police drama in television.
We also follow the cops as they make use of whatever little information they're able to gather on Basehart's character, and slowly they do close in after several missed opportunities and track the killer into the storm drains, where the play of light and shadow really takes over.
One of the cops in "He Walked By Night" is played by Jack Webb, and there's no question he got the inspiration for 'Dragnet" from this film.
Its set-up and execution are remarkably similar to Orson Wells being chased through the sewers of Vienna in Carol Reed's "The Third Man," which was filmed a year later and likely inspired by "He Walked By Night." And who knows, it might also have given a few ideas to the makers of "Them" a couple of years later when they revisited the L.A. storm drains with their giant ants.
Captain Roy Roberts and Detective Scott Brady lead the investigation which takes both men into some unexpected places in trying to track down the culprit.This was Richard Basehart's breakthrough role in He Walked By Night.
I'm also sure that the final chase scene through the storm drain must have inspired Carol Reed to put it in The Third Man where the idea got more notice.The lack of really big name stars gives this film a realistic approach.
John Alton, the cinematographer who worked with him on a couple of other film noirs, did the camera-work and he was one of the best.Richard Basehart plays a convincing no-conscience killer.
In fact, this movie even had a Dragnet feel to it with some kooky minor characters, such as the lady talking to the milkman/cop.This movie dragged a big in the middle but overall was entertaining enough to recommend, especially to film noir fans.
Based on the real life case of cop-killer come thief Erwin Walker, who in 1946 struck terror into the heart of LA, He Walked By Night zips along at a frenetic pace but maintains all the darkness requisites of the Film Noir genre.
Directed by Alfred Walker (aided by one uncredited Anthony Mann) and also starring Jack Webb (who used the piece as inspiration for the popular "Dragnet" TV series), the picture has excellent use of shadows and a brilliant finale down in the Los Angeles drainage system.
With added plot worth in the form of early police forensics (check out the photo fit technique) and a largely unknown support cast adding a raw reality to proceedings, He Walked By Night comes highly recommended to fans of the Noir and Crime genres.
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 developDragnet after being invited to review LAPD case files.
During one of their conversations, Wynn mentioned to Webb, "It's a shame they don't have a radio show that depicts the actual policeman and the work that he does." At that time, the lead detective show was "Sam Spade." They derived the title, "He Walked by Night," to the fact that he committed most of his crimes at night.
On its own, the film is said to have served as a virtual template for the DRAGNET TV series (whose creator, Jack Webb, appears here as a police lab technician).Richard Basehart's characterization of the coldly calculating criminal was possibly the most compelling to be depicted on the screen since the time of Fritz Lang's M (1931).
Jack Webb did a great job of directing, making good use of shadows and dramatic lighting effects which would come to define the film noir genre.
The supporting cast is a treasure trove, among them: Roy Roberts as the determined police captain, Dorothy Adams as the loony lady on Brady's milk run, Whit Bissell as Basehart's bookish friend, Billy Mauch as the mugging head of a teen gang, and Jack Webb learning how to make "Dragnet" a west coast version of "The Naked City".
And, that's not all; read the extended cast list on IMDb before watching, so you don't miss anyone!********* He Walked by Night (1948) Alfred Werker, Anthony Mann ~ Richard Basehart, Scott Brady, Roy Roberts.
(Of course, we all know what influence the film had on Jack Webb's career on the development of "Dragnet".) The film tends to move rather slowly at times but it all ends with one of the greatest chases in film history.....through the storm drains of Los Angeles with the already mentioned Alton touch.This is a small film that is worth watching.
The perseverance of Sgt. Marty Brennan in his investigation gives a clue where he might live."He Walked By Night" presents a police story based on a true event like a narrated documentary.
It was done documentary-style and certainly has some interesting aspects to it: it has a noir feel to it, it shows 1948 routine police work, it's based on a true story, it shows what's under Los Angeles, there are glass milk bottles, and before he started playing bald and paunchy policemen, Scott Brady was a hunk.The film's star is a very young Richard Basehart as a diabolical burglar who thinks nothing of murdering one cop and paralyzing another.
HE WALKED BY NIGHT is a neat little film noir filmed in semi-documentary style (narration included), typical of several films from the '40s-era (BOOMERANG, THE HOUSE ON 92ND STREET), taut with suspense lasting a brisk 79 minutes and released by Eagle-Lion, a small independent company.RICHARD BASEHART (one of Hollywood's most underrated actors) was always an interesting actor to watch and here he has one of his best roles as a petty thief and murderer who uses his skill as a radio/television technician to make a fast buck with stolen property.
Breen who uses some state of the art (at the time) technology to put together a composite picture of what the killer might look like.The very tense build-up to the capture is film noir at its best with the camera exploring the dark underworld of sewer tunnels in San Francisco that I never knew existed.
John Alton's Famous Noir Photography with its Night Shoots, Diagonals, and Relentless Looming Shadows Dominate the Mundane, and now Frankly Dated but at the Time Cutting Edge Police Tech Inclusions.Richard Basehart's Cold Demeanor and Sweaty Presentation is also a Standout Noir Killer.
This is a movie that even after the passing of so many years stands out as an excellent example of documentary style film making.Because unlike a lot of movies it doesn't waste time in getting to whats going on And indeed from the first scene when a police officer on patrol surprises a robber in an electronic store and is killed by him which of course sets off a massive search by the LAPD to get the killer responsible.The cast was headed by a young Richard Basehart as the killer,along with a young Scott Brady as Sgt Marty Brennan and James B Cardwell as Chuck Jones who are assigned to the investigation and also featured many well known character actors such as Roy Roberts as Captain Breen ,Whit Bissell as Paul Reeves,Byron Foulger as Freddie in Records Section,Anne Doran as a Dispatcher,a young Jack Webb as lab technician named Lee who later came up with the classic TV Show"Dragnet"among the cast and there were many others as well in the cast who later became familiar faces in Movies and TV appearances and the narration by Reed Hadley as well added to the greatness of the cast.But of course it was the performance of Richard Basehart that makes the movie memorable because he kept you interested in what he was up to and also made you wonder why he did what he did.And the final chase sequence in the sewers of LA was excellent and those sewers were also used at the end of the movie"Them"about the giant ants made in 1951 .And in fact an actor named Harry Wilson who was in"He Walked By Night" as a prison inmate also appears as a patient in"Them" and indeed only recently when watching it again did I spot even more actors who's faces I knew but a lot of times didn't know their names and indeed this movie had a lot of the best character actors that could be in one movie.And at a running time of 79 minutes packed more excitement then most movies do today at 2hours.If you have a chance to get this movie do so because its an example of movie making at its best..
There's no Holmes-like genius here who solves the case with a brilliant eureka moment, instead we see the force utilise traditional methodology in pursuit of the perpetrator, involving most prominently an early identikit method to lead them to their man.Set in Los Angeles, periodic voiceovers add to the documentary feel describing the mundane everyday aspect of the job, effectively de-glamourising it, although these have disappeared by the time we get to the exciting extended chase through the city's underground storm drains.Richard Basehart, best known to me as the paternal Admiral Nelson in the much later Irwin Allen TV adventure series from the 60's "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea", is very effective as the hoodlum whose small-time M.O. of stealing and re-selling electrical goods escalates when he resorts to using a gun on the curious cop at the start of the film.
He's probably the biggest name here but I was just as impressed with the performances of the remainder of the lesser-known cast thoroughly convincing me in their portrayal of ordinary men and women doing a difficult job for a living.The noir elements come through in the deep shadows which Basehart's character inhabits, especially in his darkened apartment he shares with the best acting dog I've ever seen in a film and later as he tries to escape his fate, hunted down literally like a rat in a sewer in the imaginatively devised culmination of the film in the underground maze of tunnels below the city, dark and as silent as a tomb apart from the sound of running footsteps, lit only by the hand-held torch-light of pursuer and pursued.No real motive is given for the escalation of Basehart's actions from low-rank burglar to gun-crime, but the resonance with so much of what we still see today in latter-day America gives the film an unexpected topicality in my view.I've been watching a lot of noir movies of late and found this one a refreshing change with its deliberate lack of psychological intent, convoluted plotting and treacherous women.
Complete with V.O. narrative, this Dragnet-style police procedural describes the pursuit of a killer, and is based on the real-life crime spree of Erwin Walker (played by Richard Basehart).
One thing that detracts from the story is that although this criminal was a killer, most of the crimes recounted in the plot involve robbery and burglary, and that renders the story less intense."He Walked By Night" is one of the first, if not the first, films to use composite drawings as a procedure to identify the perp.
Werker & Anthony Mann co-directed this realistic semi-documentary thriller that stars Richard Basehart as cunning but disturbed electronics expert Roy Martin, who becomes a wanted killer after shooting a policeman who was getting too close to identifying him after a robbery.
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!
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"..
This is a good, solid police procedural film based on a real case, about how they caught a killer in Los Angeles without any clues to go on.
"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.
Whatever the case, the direction is one of the most distinguished things about this movie, which looks spectacular and has all sorts of memorable moments, not the least of which is a climactic chase in a sewer that instantly brings to mind Carol Reed's "The Third Man" from two years later.Richard Basehart is the villain in this one, and it's fun to see him give himself so completely over to a nasty role, that of an armed robber who will kill if he has to.
Jack Webb has a small role as a forensics expert, and one of the film's most interesting scenes is one in which he uses the feedback from an assembly of Basehart's victims to reconstruct a picture of what their unknown suspect looks like.
I'm a huge film noir classic movie fan, and I already knew that the film "He Walked By Night" was NOT "a true story" by the time the writers got thru with it.
HE WALKED BY NIGHT (1948) *** (out of four) Gritty film noir has the police trying to track down a master criminal who killed a cop.
I used to love Dragnet when I was a kid and they had it in re runs on local TV.Unfortunately this movie feels very dated.The plot:In the Post-World War II, in Los Angeles, a criminal shoots and kills a police officer in the middle of the night.
A Bit of a Forgotten Gem. This film-noir piece, told in semi-documentary style, follows police on the hunt for a resourceful criminal who shoots and kills a cop.What makes this film interesting: During production, one of the actors, Jack Webb, struck up a friendship with the police technical adviser, Detective Sergeant Marty Wynn, and was inspired by a conversation with Wynn to create the radio and later television program "Dragnet".But also, this is the fictional version of a true story that is not well-remembered today.
Little to no explanation is given in the film as to his motives but the film is pretty good anyway.The film is a good example of film noir - very dark, disturbing and has the makings to be a great film if they would have added more to the ending - giving us some sort of explanation of Roy's motives.The movie is a semi-documentary loosely based on the real life burglar and cop killer Erwin "Machine-Gun" Walker.
Ultimately, the police gets a break that will put an end to Roy's crime spree.Albert Werker directed the impressive "He Walked by Night", a 1948 film noir that went to be imitated by a lot of people in Hollywood.
The best thing in the film is John Alton's black and white cinematography that captures the Los Angeles of that era in all its splendor.Richard Basehart made a cool Roy Martin.
He Walked by Night" is a 1948 black-and-white film noir crime drama that was shot in semi-documentary style and inspired one of the film's actors, Jack Webb, to create the radio and later television program Dragnet, which the film clearly resembles.
That does not happen in the Basehart film.It's unfair, for HE WALKED BY NIGHT is a tidy and tense little thriller and police procedural.
Everybody ought to know by now that director Alfred Werker's semi-documentary police procedural "He Walked By Night," with Richard Basehart and Scott Brady, inspired Jack Webb's classic radio and television crime series "Dragnet." The evocative, film noir photography of the late great John Alton, who also lensed a couple of John Sturges films "Mystery Street" and "The People Against O'Hara" as well as Richard Brooks' "Elmer Gantry," gives this lean, mean 1949 thriller an edge that neither its budget nor its action could have achieved in tandem.
*Special Stars- Richard Basehart, Scott Brady, Roy Roberts, Whit Bissell, Jack Webb.*Theme- Good honorable police enforcement often helps justice along the way.*Trivia/location/goofs- B & W, Film noir, Los Angeles.
Los Angeles streets turn sinister as the killer leads the police force (among them Scott Brady and Jack Ebb) on a not so merry chase.If you like tight camera work that really goes into the structure of the new wave, then this is a great example of how film noir and crime dramas, whether on the big screen or the then new invention of television.
"He Walked By Night" (1948) fully deserves its good reputation as a classic noir, thanks mainly to its chilling performance by Richard Basehart and a great deal of atmospherically low-key location filming in Los Angeles by ace cameraman, John Alton.