He Walked by Night (1949)

A very intriguing thriller built on the best possible foundation of a true story. Richard Baseheart is always an interesting actor specializing in odd roles, such as The Fool in Fellini's "La strada", and he adds an extra whiff of interest by deeply sympathetic originality to his roles, and this is one of his best - a total outsider who stalks his own life in darkness without scruples, turning into a very cold-blooded and technically advanced murderer, giving the police a hard time to even get him defined.In addition the film is carefully built up with architectural finesse, as the tension never relaxes but constantly is augmented, leading to a towering finale of suspense in the tunnels. Yes, this points forward to "The Third Man", and the question is if Carol Reed saw this film first. If he did, "The Third Man" makes it even better.It is very dark, a truly noir film at its best, I had no expectations seeing it but was deeply impressed, especially by Richard Baseheart's extremely unpleasant but at the same time very tragic role amounting to greatness.

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. This movie seems to be ahead of its time in several ways. Unlike other crime dramas of the thirties and forties, there is a lack of hammy dialog, no girl with a heart of gold standing behind her man - either criminal or police officer, and no background information given explaining the criminal's motivation, or any of the other plot gimicks that run from the early talkie gangster films into the crime dramas of the post-war era. Also, there is no mystery for the audience to solve, as the actions of the police and the criminal are clearly shown to the audience. The only question is when and how their paths will finally cross.Richard Basehart, who portrays criminal Roy Martin in this film, really owns the movie. He shines as a relentless sociopath whose only tender spot seems to be for his own dog. Because he doesn't associate with known criminals and lives quietly, he is exceptionally hard to track down. Basehart actually has very few lines, but he is great at expressing his state of mind through his gestures and facial expressions. The film's excellent cinematography surrounds Basehart's character with cold, deterministic pools of light and darkness so that he really does seem like some type of shadow of evil that has descended upon the city. The killer in the film was actually based on real-life criminal Erwin Walker. However, wanting to concentrate on both the crime solving techniques involved and the habits of the criminal, this interesting and lengthy backstory was omitted to keep the film tight and fast paced.Erwin Walker was a brilliant student at the California Institute of Technology, a radio dispatcher for the police department in his native Glendale, and something of a hero as a lieutenant in charge of a radar unit on Okinawa during World War II. Walker returned from overseas duty deeply disturbed, and set out on a crime spree of more than a dozen holdups and burglaries to raise money for construction of a "death ray machine" that he thought would somehow make another war impossible. Twice Walker shot his way out of police traps, escaping through the labyrinth of storm drain pipes under Los Angeles and eventually killing a police officer. He was sentenced to death, but was later found to be insane by prison psychiatrists, and his execution was postponed indefinitely. California governor Pat Brown commuted his sentence to life in 1961, and in 1971 Walker was granted a new trial due to his original confession having been found to be coerced. Remarkably, he was acquitted at the second trial, changed his name, married, and took a job as a chemist somewhere in Southern California, never to be heard from publicly again.Thus, just or unjust, the inspiration for this movie had quite a different outcome than the villain in the film. Of course, in 1948, nobody would have dared write such a screenplay and have expected to ever work in Hollywood again.I had always considered Cagney's portrayal of Cody Jarrett in White Heat (1949) to be the first real off-the-wall psycho killer in a major film. But I now think that distinction should probably go to Basehart's portrayal of Erwin Walker in this movie. It's obviously a matter of opinion, but I can't think of a killer this menacing in a film prior to 1948.

"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.

First off, I love Dragnet, so that creates a bias I love the police procedural too. And old crime movies. So of course, seeing how this is a well executed police procedural movie I love itLoved the plot about the intelligent sociopath. Ignoring the historical basis, we wonder, why is he so cold blooded. The war? Does he blame society?His actions are logical. As is the police actions. I often question 100 things in a movie, but in this case I questioned very few items. It seemed very plausibleLoved seeing Jack Webb here of course, and I then realized, wow this is so much like Dragnet. Then I did some looking into it and realized this had to be the template for Dragnet. That alone is worth the priced of admission unless it was awful, and it was not awfulI feel this should get 9/10 for being a perfect example of the sub genre as police proceduralAs a noir, well, as some people have said, it's not a typical noir, but I would still give it 6/10As a dramatization of a historical killer, it's probably a bit weak due to changes to the real story, but that's Hollywood for you, and expected so 6/10 thereI highly recommend this to Dragnet lovers and police procedural lovers. People who like more drama and less realism could probably find better choices elsewhere, but even crime story lovers should find something to like here, and some noir lovers might appreciate it