He Walked by Night
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| He Walked by Night | |
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 He Walked by Night lobby card |
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| Directed by | Alfred L. Werker Anthony Mann (uncredited) |
| Written by | Crane Wilbur (story and screenplay) John C. Higgins (screenplay) |
| Starring | Richard Basehart Scott Brady Roy Roberts Whit Bissell |
| Cinematography | John Alton |
| Distributed by | Eagle-Lion Films Inc. |
| Release date(s) | November 24, 1948 (U.S. release) |
| Running time | 79 min |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
He Walked by Night is a 1948 black-and-white film noir with Alfred L. Werker credited as director. In reality, most of the film was directed by western/film noir director Anthony Mann. The film, shot in semi-documentary style, was based on the real-life actions of Erwin 'Machine-Gun' Walker[1], a psychopathic killer whose story and capture inspired one of the film's actors (Jack Webb) to create the radio and later television program Dragnet. The film was released by Eagle-Lion Films Inc. The film is notable for the camerawork by renowed noir cinematographer John Alton.
On a Los Angeles, California street, a cop is shot dead by an unknown assailant. Two police officers, Sergeants Marty Brennan (Brady) and Chuck Jones (Cardwell) are assigned to catch the killer. The killer (Basehart), a brilliant mystery man with no known criminal past, is hiding in a Hollywood bungalow and listening to police calls on his custom radio in an attempt to avoid capture. The only relationship the man seems to have is with his little dog. The killer uses the Los Angeles sewer system as a mean to escape police. At one point he performs surgery on himself to remove a bullet. The police finally get a break in the case when they gather witnesses together and create a composite sketch of the killer. That eventually leads them straight to him.
[edit] Main cast
- Richard Basehart as Roy Martin/Roy Morgan
- Scott Brady as Sgt. Marty Brennan
- Roy Roberts as Capt. Breen
- Whit Bissell as Paul Reeves an electronics dealer
- James Cardwell as Sgt. Chuck Jones (as Jimmy Cardwell)
- Jack Webb as Lee
[edit] Triva
- The Police Radio room scene was also used in film High Sierra.
- In the Movie the slain police officer was a member of the LAPD; in reality the slain officer was a member of the California Highway Patrol; see [[2]].
- Erwin Walker's real-life story would prove even more dramatic than the film, and not necessarily one in which justice would triumph. After his 1946 confession and trial, Walker was initially sentenced to death, and in despair, Walker's father killed himself. Only 36 hours before his scheduled execution, Walker himself attempted suicide, and was reprieved with a temporary sentence to a mental hospital. He was declared sane in 1959, but received a commutation of his sentence to life imprisonment by the Governor. Twelve years later, Walker was granted a new trial, and was released in 1973 from the California Medical Facility at Vacaville, where he had studied and worked in a chemistry laboratory. He changed his name, married, and took a job as a chemist in Southern California, never to be heard from again.
