He Walked by Night Review

He Walked By Night (1948)

Anthony Mann started working for David O Selznick as a talent scout in the 1930s but his real desire was to direct.  He got his chance following WWII working on “B” pictures on poverty row for studios like Republic and Eagle Lion.  His earliest films were film noir and for this one he was not even credited, but credit was given to Alfred Werker.

 He Walked By Night was the first police procedural drama with a documentary style and voiceover narration by Reed Hadley.  The style was pirated by bit player Jack Webb, who parleyed his knowledge into the long running hit series Dragnet.
The factual approach to police procedure like this movie portrayed was what the viewing audience craved and Jack Webb was set for life.

He Walked By Night told the story of the most challenging manhunt in LAPD's history. A true story, it was presented almost as if being read from a case file. Mann used an objective approach to the story to keep you only as far as he takes you with the storyline. Thus the motives of the master criminal are never revealed; he remains an enigma as he does in the LA case files to this day.  

Richard Basehart does a tremendous performance as the protagonist, a man we know as Roy Martin but that is only an alias.   Martin is a loner who has a natural flair for crime. A homeward bound off duty police officer sees Basehart attempting to break into an electronics shop after hours. He stops him and tries to get him to talk and Basehart coldly shoots him down. That is how the movie opens.  When the investigators arrive on the scene, they find all Basehart's tools and equipment with no fingerprints or identification of any kind.

A piece of military surplus electronic equipment is the only clue, and that's what Detective  Brennan (Scott Brady) follows up, leading to a near miss at the electronics store  run by  familiar face Whit Bissell.  Basehart, with his animal cunning, shoots his way out of the police ambush and escapes. We later see an incredible view of him probing his bullet wound himself, whimpering while his only friend, a small dog sits nearby.

The killer changes his modus operandi several times, further baffling the police. How he is able to keep out of their dragnet for so long leads to the thrilling final act, with a chase through the storm drains of Lost Angeles that prefigured the brilliant finale in Carol Reed's The Third Man.

He Walked By Night was filmed in film noir style - black and white with dramatic lighting and unusual camera angles. John Alton was the cinematographer and he did several more crime movies with Mann. Dramatic music was provided by Leonid Raab. Supporting cast was full of familiar faces, including young Jack Webb as a police lab technician who showed a lot of the behind the scenes scientific techniques.

He Walked By Night displayed gritty realism that led police dramas in a more realistic direction. However, Richard Basehart was the key to make it all work. He played an enigmatic, paranoid genius who stayed a couple jumps ahead of the police in a classic portrait that that makes him one of the most memorable villains I’ve ever seen.

The MGM DVD is presented in well preserved black and white in 1.33:1 theatrical aspect. He Walked By Night belongs in every fan’s detective story or film noir library.