Rating: 
Summary: Only the names have been changed...
Review: Roy Martin (Richard Basehart) is as cold as an ice pick and as ruthless as teflon. Martin is a burglar, an extortionist, and worst of all, he's a cop killer.
Alfred Werker's HE WALKED BY NIGHT is a taut, moody police procedural. Some have called it a film noir, but it lacks certain key elements to merit that brand. In noir the cops are usually as corrupt as the bad guys. HWBN lacks that moral ambiguity. We never doubt that Martin is evil and the cops are good. Noirs also delight in probing the psyche of the protagonist. HWBN keeps it lead character at arm's length. Martin is a creature of the shadows and the sewers, half emerging into the light only long enough to extort or kill. There's not a shot in this movie that is taken from his point of view. Even when the scene includes only Martin and his dog we're kept at a distance. We're detached observers rather than participants. HWBN wants to exterminate rather than examine and explain. Evil can't be understood by the good, but it can be eliminated.
I wouldn't pick at this point if MGM didn't call HE WALKED BY NIGHT "this film noir classic" on the dvd jacket. The difference between HWBN and film noir is as great as the difference between Faulkner and Hemingway, and fans of the genre shouldn't be misled.
If you looking for comparisons, DRAGNET is a lot more appropriate. Jack Webb has a small role in here, and it was while working on this movie he met the LAPD technical advisor who helped him develop Dragnet for radio (it debuted shortly after the movie opened.) As it goes in most police procedurals, the bad guy is too clever by half and the good guys can prevail only after a painstaking investigation and a slow accumulation of evidence.
What HWBN does share with film noir is a gritty, alienating, urban setting and evocative light-and-shadow photography. Los Angeles is presented here as cold and lifeless, filled with anonymous cottages and enormous storm tunnels.
That said, HE WALKED BY NIGHT is a wonderful movie. Basehart is icily effective as the loner killer. The semi-documentary feeling and naturalistic acting styles employed are just right for the subject matter. If you don't find yourself running out of the room every time an old Dragnet or a newer CSI comes on, you might just enjoy this one.
Rating:
Summary: Only the names have been changed...
Review: Roy Martin (Richard Basehart) is as cold as an ice pick and as ruthless as teflon. Martin is a burglar, an extortionist, and worst of all, he's a cop killer.
Alfred Werker's HE WALKED BY NIGHT is a taut, moody police procedural. Some have called it a film noir, but it lacks certain key elements to merit that brand. In noir the cops are usually as corrupt as the bad guys. HWBN lacks that moral ambiguity. We never doubt that Martin is evil and the cops are good. Noirs also delight in probing the psyche of the protagonist. HWBN keeps it lead character at arm's length. Martin is a creature of the shadows and the sewers, half emerging into the light only long enough to extort or kill. There's not a shot in this movie that is taken from his point of view. Even when the scene includes only Martin and his dog we're kept at a distance. We're detached observers rather than participants. HWBN wants to exterminate rather than examine and explain. Evil can't be understood by the good, but it can be eliminated.
I wouldn't pick at this point if MGM didn't call HE WALKED BY NIGHT "this film noir classic" on the dvd jacket. The difference between HWBN and film noir is as great as the difference between Faulkner and Hemingway, and fans of the genre shouldn't be misled.
If you looking for comparisons, DRAGNET is a lot more appropriate. Jack Webb has a small role in here, and it was while working on this movie he met the LAPD technical advisor who helped him develop Dragnet for radio (it debuted shortly after the movie opened.) As it goes in most police procedurals, the bad guy is too clever by half and the good guys can prevail only after a painstaking investigation and a slow accumulation of evidence.
What HWBN does share with film noir is a gritty, alienating, urban setting and evocative light-and-shadow photography. Los Angeles is presented here as cold and lifeless, filled with anonymous cottages and enormous storm tunnels.
That said, HE WALKED BY NIGHT is a wonderful movie. Basehart is icily effective as the loner killer. The semi-documentary feeling and naturalistic acting styles employed are just right for the subject matter. If you don't find yourself running out of the room every time an old Dragnet or a newer CSI comes on, you might just enjoy this one.
Rating:
Summary: Why?
Review: The Dragnet overlay functions like Fritz Lang/M's web of entrapment for the mysterious Basehart character. We never find out why he does anything that he does. I'm especially baffled and intrigued by his need to steal cutting edge electronic equipment and then have Whit Bissell sell it as Basehart's own invention. What gives with that? And the previous reviewer's comment about B and his dog is right on target: it's extremely touching: B and his dog, in that lonely apartment, all alone. Probably Alton's masterwork. Interesting companion piece: Basehart's Tension, where he's a cuckolded milquetoast pharmacist who changes identity to get revenge--but with unexpected results.
Rating:
Summary: Why?
Review: The Dragnet overlay functions like Fritz Lang/M's web of entrapment for the mysterious Basehart character. We never find out why he does anything that he does. I'm especially baffled and intrigued by his need to steal cutting edge electronic equipment and then have Whit Bissell sell it as Basehart's own invention. What gives with that? And the previous reviewer's comment about B and his dog is right on target: it's extremely touching: B and his dog, in that lonely apartment, all alone. Probably Alton's masterwork. Interesting companion piece: Basehart's Tension, where he's a cuckolded milquetoast pharmacist who changes identity to get revenge--but with unexpected results.
Rating:
Summary: Basehart Is Brilliant
Review: The genius of Richard Basehart, one of our greatest and most underrecognized actors, is showcased in this documentary-style release from the noir tradition. His characterization of the cop killer and thief is unsettling in its intensity and power. The direction and editing are razor-sharp; the use of light and shadow is hypnotic in its effectiveness. In the hands of less gifted people, this film could have come off as a basic 'Fifties low-budget cops and robbers story, but it never lets us down. The suspense is relentless. You feel the starkness, and the dark and damp of the locations chill you. The best thing in the film is Basehart's performance. Watch him in character doing surgery on himself to remove a bullet from a cop's gun. He actually breaks a sweat! You can't take your eyes off him for one frame. There lies true genius as applied to actors. We need more of his films to become available on DVD. Overall, "He Walked By Night" is a winner. It's an excellent choice for any classic crime movie fan who's looking for a truly riveting experience.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful suspense classic!
Review: The inspiration for "Dragnet" and a milestone in semi-documentary realism in film, "He Walked By Night" is an unforgettable study in pop-psychopathology and the rigors of homicide work. Primarily directed by Alfred L. Werker, who also gave us such superior fare as "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (1939), "Repeat Performance" (1947), and "Shock" (1946), this highly engrossing movie features expertly laconic and understated performances, remarkably arty cinematography, and a level of tension and suspense that builds masterfully to an exciting and visually superb climax. Here is the contrived but sincere realism of "Dragnet," and, most of all, the same promotion of respect for police officers and police work. The entire cast, including Richard Basehart in the lead and none other than Jack Webb in a supporting role, is outstanding, and there is directoral assistance from the great Anthony Mann. This reviewer's favorite movie.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful suspense classic!
Review: The inspiration for "Dragnet" and a milestone in semi-documentary realism in film, "He Walked By Night" is an unforgettable study in pop-psychopathology and the rigors of homicide work. Primarily directed by Alfred L. Werker, who also gave us such superior fare as "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (1939), "Repeat Performance" (1947), and "Shock" (1946), this highly engrossing movie features expertly laconic and understated performances, remarkably arty cinematography, and a level of tension and suspense that builds masterfully to an exciting and visually superb climax. Here is the contrived but sincere realism of "Dragnet," and, most of all, the same promotion of respect for police officers and police work. The entire cast, including Richard Basehart in the lead and none other than Jack Webb in a supporting role, is outstanding, and there is directoral assistance from the great Anthony Mann. This reviewer's favorite movie.
Rating: 
Summary: LA Propaganda? Dead on Arrival?
Review: This reviewer bought this 'docu-melodrama' based on these reviews, not knowing the prerequisite to enjoy this "masterpiece of American cinema" is to regard Jack Webb's "Dragnet" as perhaps the greatest TV production ever. (...)Richard Basehart (as Roy Martin, hardly a 30-ish "kid") introduces some dimensionality with acting talents that overcame even this dead-on-arrival script. In comparison to the others' stone-faced wooden readings, his became the unintended, even sympathetic anti-hero protagonist. To those pondering this character's motivations, the answer is simple: Script writers couldn't care less. To hell with motivation! We want police action! Maybe Carol Reed's "The Third Man" borrowed concepts from the sewer chase. So what? Does "The Fugitive" - and other such films - owe its' sewer chase to this source too? "The Third Man" is a textbook example of real five-star cinema, as watching Criterion's re-mastered version back-to-back with this pathetic flick amply demonstrates. (And revisit the five-star "LA Confidential" while you're at it.) True, this sewer's noir cinematography is well done. But the flick is overall a series of caricatures (hardly "promoting respect for police officers...") that are one-dimensional, crime-does-not-pay parodies (unintended and at times hilarious), with siren-blaring hordes of antique police cars screeching out of garages galore; and corny voice-overs to fill in pot holes and extol the LAPD as wonder-boy saints. Positives are Basehart's performance (one star); the crisp black and white noir cinematography with few (if any) glitches, and the sound being largely unblemished (one star); a very sweet and clever dog; an OK DVD keep-case; the mercifully short 79 minute running time; and the low DVD cost. Noir collectors, crime film buffs and film historians may be interested.
Rating:
Summary: Great American Cinema
Review: Though Alfred Werker is credited with the direction of this film, for anyone familiar with the work of Anthony Mann it is obvious that this film belongs to Mann who replaced Werker as director after some of the filming was already begun.
It is becoming more common knowledge all the time what superior noir films Anthony Mann made in the late 1940's though he worked with very small budgets. The most popular of these films seems to be T-Men which is a deserving choice, but my personal favorite is He Walked By Night. This is not only one of the finest of all noir films, but is one of the masterpieces of American cinema. But it is also a frustrating film in a way that I will describe. The great achievement of this film was reached in spite of the restrictions that Mann had to work with. He did not write the screenplay with its heavy-handed propagandistic tone. The sympathy for law enforcement is so pervasive in it that there is little space left for the most fascinating question in the film: What really motivates Roy Martin? The propaganda aspect of the film sees Martin as merely an alien and repellant statistic that must be simply disposed of. But it is obvious that Mann saw that the core of the energy of this film lay in the character of Roy Martin who becomes an incandescent question that can not be ignored. This vicious killer, with his strange obsession with electronics, obviously loves and is deeply loved by his pet dog. In a structural sense the center and balance point of the film is the simple scene of Roy alone in his apartment with the dog shortly before the police close in on him. Roy is obviously uneasy lying on the sofa and he reaches down to touch the dog on the floor near him. It is a genuine need for affection. The dog senses the police and begins moaning and barking which allows Roy to escape from the house, but of course he is tracked down by the police in a great under the city chase. The reason that, for me, He Walks By Night is superior to T-Men, though the two films are comparable in their general cinematic qualities, is precisely the charcter of Roy Martin. Though Mann is not allowed to probe and explore this character deeply and to one's satisfaction, which is what makes this great film also somewhat frustrating, he does succeed in making of Roy Martin a strange, troubling flare that lights up the night and is not forgotten. It is most unfortunate that an artist like Anthony Mann was not given the space he really needed here to explore the conflicted human psyche which was his forte as he showed later in the great westerns, Naked Spur and The Man Of The West. Of all Mann's early films He Walked By Night is the most indicative of his artistic gifts and inclinations. It is a film well worth becoming deeply familiar with.
It is only fair to mention also that Richard Baseharts' portrayal of Roy Martin can only make one wonder why this gifted actor was so little recognized. Basehart and Mann make a deeply powerful combination in this great film.
When will America begin truly respecting its real artists and learn to separate them from mere entertainers?
Rating: 
Summary: LA Crime, 40s Style
Review: Well--some reviewers consider "He Walked By Night" a masterpiece--at least one other reviewer called it "pathetic". From my three stars, you can guess that I am somewhere between these two extreme views. I can think of a number of 40s "film noir" melodramas that are superior to this one, but I still found it an interesting way of passing 80 minutes. With respect to acting honours, it is no contest. This is Richard Basehart's movie, hands down. His cold-blooded killer is a very different animal to some of the rough-looking types
( hello Rondo Hatton ) that inhabit some of these movies. We are reminded that, years before his TV fame on "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea ", Richard Basehart was a very fine actor. I agree that most of the actors portraying "LA's finest" are stone-faced, cardboard cut-outs--Scott Brady and, of course, Jack Webb are wooden in the extreme. I thought that Roy Roberts fared a bit better, expressing emotion that seemed to be beyond the grasp of those zombies reporting to him. B-movie regular, Whit Bissell, is appropriately nervous as an electronics dealer, who finds he has been doing business with a killer. Also, if you are a B-movie buff, you will spot Kenneth Tobey as a cop, just a couple of years away from his encounter with "The Thing From Another World", and several other nasty, sci/fi creatures. I found the shots of LA in the 40s very interesting, and I love old cars, so the historical aspect was a plus for me. Of course, we are decades away from computers, so police methods in this film will seem very quaint to younger viewers. The "profile" scene is well done--various citizens are called in to help the police determine what Mr. Basehart looks like, and the results are very effective. The movie does generate a lot of suspense, and the final showdown in the drainage tunnels is well done. The DVD has a nice black and white picture--mono sound of course. If you like old-fashioned crime films, that do not wear out their welcome, this modestly-priced disc would fit in your collection. I would also not want to discourage MGM--or any other company--from issuing films of this type and vintage.
|
