User reviews

This is a true story...

It's known to the Police Department of one of our largest cities as the most difficult homicide case in its experience. Principally because of the diabolical cleverness, intelligence and cunning of a completely unknown killer.....The record is set down here factually-as it happened. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Cracking little noir picture this one. Richard Baseheart is Davis Morgan, a cold and calculated thief and murderer. He is not only unknown to the police, but also to the Los Angeles underworld. Something which made him a terrifying ghost on the streets. 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. Where the sound of guns and running feet is just ferocious.

Baseheart is suitably chilling as a man coming unhinged by the day, whilst a home surgery sequence shows Baseheart to have had no small amount of ability. It's notable with Morgan's character that it's people he just doesn't like, there's a very telling scene with his dog that is sweet but at the same time saying so much about the man himself. This film reminded me very much of Edward Dmytryk's similarly fine 1952 film, The Sniper. So much so I'd say that as a double bill they be perfect for each other. 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. 8/10

Richard Basehart shoots down an LAPD officer one night after the offduty patrolman stops him for some suspicious activity. The officer who paid with his life had every reason to be suspicious, Basehart was attempting to break into an electronics store.

The shooting sets off a manhunt that takes more than a month. 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. He plays a really diabolical stone cold killer in this one who apparently has no liking for humans. His only companion in the world is a dog.

This clever little noir thriller is done in the documentary style that seemed to be in vogue after World War II. 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. Look for Jack Webb in a supporting role as a police lab technician. I Don't doubt he got the idea for Dragnet from working on He Walked By Night.

Watching this movie, which is very good if dated, I thought of The Third Man, too. But it was made BEFORE the Carol Reed film, so can hardly be said to have borrowed heavily from it. In fact, I wondered if Reed had been influenced by Werker! The Third Man is an incomparably better film, one of my Desert Island movies. But He Walked By Night was a competent and at times really interesting flick. The scene where the robbery victims collaborate on building the villain's face was excellent.

Another enjoyable aspect was spotting so many familiar faces. I caught a very brief glimpse of Kenneth Tobey and half a dozen other performers whose faces, if not their names, were very familiar . . . like the nutty lady talking to "milkman" Scott Brady.

HE WALKED BY NIGHT (1948) has such a raw, bare-bones feel to it, a real "you are there" aura. A cheerless loner (Cold as an ice bomb Richard Basehart) kills a policeman. The search of the killer begins. This little B-film has so many unforgetable scenes, they drive in one after the other. (The police picking up every vagrant in the city searching for the cop killer, the look on the targeted cop's wife's face when she gets the bad news) My favorite scene is one that does not move the plot along, but creates such an uncomfortable mood. In it, Basehart tries to fish a bullet out of his arm at his sink as his dog yaps and whines in the background.

Well worth catching.

Not as good as hyped, this film noir, however, is still interesting and suspenseful. It's full of good film noir photography with lots of nighttime shots with many shadows, not only outdoors but indoors and even in the Los Angeles sewer system! I recommended getting the Anthony Mann DVD pack so you get the best picture quality. With all that darkness, you need to see this on a good transfer.

Mann is an uncredited director for this film, or at least a co-director. 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. He as very interesting to watch all the way through. It also was entertaining to see a young Jack Webb play a forensics-type cop. This was his pre-Dragnet television show period but this was a good vehicle for his cop work. 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. Just make sure you see this with a good print.

One wonders what Werker's contribution to this title is – as it just feels like a Mann film through and through. with its semi-documentary approach likening it to the latter's T-MEN (1947) in particular. 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). His resourcefulness and devious nature clearly foreshadowed the more obviously maniacal villains of much later films, such as Scorpio in DIRTY HARRY (1971; as in that picture, the hero's sidekick eventually ends up in a wheelchair) and even Hannibal Lecter. Incidentally, the episode of the criminal operating on himself when wounded has since become a cliché (this was probably the first such instance in cinema) – but the numerous shootouts were similarly potent.

Also influential is the use of storm drains as both a haven and a conveniently invisible means of travel for the killer – the most notable example, of course, being THE THIRD MAN (1949). Terse and suspenseful, the film is given an added sheen by virtue of John Alton's peerless cinematography (evident in the MGM DVD I watched, but not the various Public Domain prints in circulation; see the DVD Beaver comparison for confirmation).

Most hardcore film buffs probably don't know that "He Walked By Night" is one of the most influential and important movies ever made. Literally. It is an accurate account of the 1947 manhunt for the most cunning criminal in the history of the Los Angeles Police Department. "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. Other movies of this era showed phony, daring detectives engaging in shoot-em-ups with criminals while wooing a woman. "He Walked By Night" captures reality in a stark and startling way, with excellent black-and-white photography from John Alton. 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. This realistic style is very noticeable in TV shows today, such as "Law and Order," and "NYPD Blue."

As influential as "He Walked By Night" was, it is also a finely acted, finely directed, well-written, and intense police movie. It is being re-released on DVD under "The Great Cops Movies," so don't miss it.

The semi-documentary style is an annoyance, kind of like having a play-by-play announcer for a crime spree, but when he finally shuts up there are many interesting and compelling aspects of this film. Richard Baseheart hits the right sociopathic note as an LA cop killer and electronics genius, radiating both menace and madness. And great noir cinematographer John Alton beautifully frames this film in enchantingly dark tones. The final chase scene through LA's endless maze of giant storm drain tunnels is astonishing, mesmerizing, and a marvel of underground lighting.

While most remember Richard Basehart from VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, he did quite a few "small" pictures during the 40s and 50s and they were mostly excellent and well-written pictures. Aside from the marvelous Satan BUG (1965), this film is probably Basehart's best--and as far as HIS acting goes, his best. He is one of the most cold-hearted and scary villains I have ever seen. This is because he is NOT larger than life or obviously menacing. Instead, he looks like any other guy and can appear nice and harmless--only to steal or butcher without remorse. At the same time, the film is NOT overly explicit or gratuitous--it's just a wonderful portrait of a brilliant sociopath at work.

This film is a study in stark black and white and the storm drain finale is superb. The cinematography is probably the major reason that this film is well respected, although Richard Basehart certainly contributes to its reputation.

Basehart found his best role as the icy man on a mission. He was a rather strange looking actor to begin with which added to his menace. The rest of the cast are throw-aways, only background for Basehart's character. This is not to say that they do an inferior job but the viewer's interest is concentrated on Basehart and his skewed personality. (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. It is a primer for the appreciation of black and white cinematography

After reading some of the comments, I understand the importance of "He Walked by Night," but I'm afraid I was bored by it. 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. The fascinating thing is that one of his escape routes is underneath the L.A. streets, where there are a system of tunnels to keep the city from flooding during the rains. These are captured beautifully in the movie. Jack Webb has a small role in this, and according to one of the other posters, this film gave him the idea for Dragnet. I'm afraid I wasn't a big fan of Dragnet's either.

I have to go along with Bette Davis on this one. Realism is fine, but good drama is larger than life. This was too real and too dull for me, but if you're a fan of crime drama, this is for you.

Based on a true 1946 Hollywood Police Department case, "He Walked By Night" is an early attempt at a "police procedural" film. It has a semi-documentary look combined with many of the conventions of film noir (thanks partly to cinematographer John Alton). Many of the outside scenes were filmed in or around actual locations. Richard Basehart plays a loner who is well-versed in electronic technology, guns, and police procedures. He's able to stay one step ahead of the cops because his paranoia and attention to detail keep him in a constant state of alert. It's also helpful that he listens in with his police-band radio. For a time he confounds the Hollywood cops because he changes his modus operandi. He begins as a break-in artist who steals electronic equipment, but when he kills a suspicious young policeman and loses some of his tools, he turns to armed robbery of liquor stores. Nobody can find him because he travels through Los Angeles in its underground storm drains, where he has hidden stashes of guns and other survival equipment. 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. For starters, "He Walked By Night" begins with a sky pan of Los Angeles and scenes of everyday Hollywood while the narrator gives a kind of "this is the city" speech. The police scenes are often very quotidian (sometimes to the point of being overly detailed), with cops tossing in small talk like "how's the missus? glad to hear it" before they ask other questions. Much of the pacing, attitude and overall feel of "Dragnet," which began as a radio show a year after this film and then moved to TV in 1952, is already here. The final scene in Los Angeles' storm drains ("seven hundred miles of hidden highways," according to the narrator) provides probably this film's most memorable images. 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. Ultimately, Basehart's character remains an enigma. We never learn that much about him. "He Walked By Night" isn't a great film, but it's an enjoyable look at postwar police work and primitive forensics.

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. His scenes with WHIT BISSELL are chilling in the cold-hearted manner he deals with the man who has given him some business breaks.

SCOTT BRADY, as a detective who takes it upon himself to help solve the case of the elusive killer, is excellent. JACK WEBB is featured in a small role and ROY ROBERTS is likewise effective as Capt. 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. This gives the film a sort of "Third Man" look as the murky sewers become a set piece for the staging of the final shootout.

Well worth watching, especially for fans of the film noir genre.

Burglar Basehart kills a policeman so the LA police start a major manhunt.

Quasi documentary film noir, this is a by the numbers, tightly told film noir featuring an excellent performance by Basehart as the cold calculating killer with smarts.

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). The story is set in Los Angeles in the late 1940s.

This is not a whodunit. We see the killer's face early in the film. The plot is more of a cat-and-mouse game between the cops and the criminal, with the criminal usually two steps ahead of the cops. Midway through, this cat-and-mouse game plays out nicely in night scenes with minimal dialogue. Roughly two-thirds of the plot involves police making efforts to find the guy; the other third involves the criminal in his activities and his attempts to evade capture. 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. The film also has the distinction of being the production that led to the Jack Webb TV series "Dragnet" in the 1950s. Webb plays a small part in this film as a lab technician.

Lots of shadows and stark B&W lighting yield interesting noir visuals. But the film stock is poor. Best visuals occur toward the end where the plot is set in a series of underground storm drains. The visual effects of flashlights, together with echoes in these cavernous tunnels, render some of the most evocative scenes in the film.

Music is intermittent and nondescript. Acting is acceptable. The V.O. narrative is overbearing and annoying at times. It's obvious that the story is told, and the script is written, from the POV of the L.A. police department, not from Hollywood scriptwriters. As such, the overall tone is cold and clinical.

A story that's based mostly on robberies and burglaries, and an annoying V.O. narrative, combine to make the film less intense and more dated than contemporary films. Yet "He Walked By Night" has some significant distinctions that make it important historically. And the script is interesting because the events really happened. It's worth at least one viewing, especially for viewers who like true-life crime stories.

Burglar Richard Basehart (as Roy Morgan) is attempting to rob a radio shop, when he is interrupted by off-duty policeman John McGuire (as Robert Rawlins), who just happens to be driving by, on his way home. When the suspicious officer asks to see some identification, Mr. Basehart shows him the barrel his gun. Soon, cop-killer Basehart is being perused by Scott Brady (as Marty Brennan) and the Los Angeles Police Department. Basehart proves himself to be a quite resourceful; notably; he uses the city's sewers as an escape route…

With masterful use of light and shadows, from cinematographer John Alton, "He Walked by Night" is one of the most visually striking films of the 1940s. Basehart's psychotic star performance is also award-worthy; especially, after witnessing his character operate on himself, in close-up, to remove a bullet. 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

In the Post-World War II, in Los Angeles, a criminal shots and kills a police officer in the middle of the night. Without any lead, the chief of the LAPD assigns Sgt. Chuck Jones (Jimmy Cardwell) and Sgt. Marty Brennan (Scott Brady) to investigate the murder and find the murderer. When the dealer of electronics devices Paul Reeves (Whit Bissell) is caught selling a stolen projector, the police finds the identity of the criminal, Roy Martin (Richard Basehart), and connects him to other unsolved robberies. Using the witnesses of his heists, they draw their face, but the true identity of the smart and intelligent criminal is not disclosed. 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. The story shows the state-of-art technology of the LAPD in 1948, therefore it is absolutely dated. I do not understand why this movie is tagged as "film-noir" since it does not present the elements of this genre: sordid characters, femme-fatale, and amoral story. The cinematography in black and white is very beautiful in this good police story. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Demônio da Noite" ("The Demon of the Night")

Inspired by a true life article. He Walked by Night is a low budget noir.

Roy (Richard Basehart) is casing an electrical shop to rob when a cop interrupts him.

Roy shoots the cop dead and there is manhunt for him. It just that Roy is rather smart and elusive as he uses the network of underground tunnels in LA.

The only leads the police have are the specialised electrical goods that Roy sells to a buyer. This enables the police to get a description of him.

Although this movie is regarded as a classic in some quarters. I found this to be pedestrian. It is slow going even with its short running time. It never gathers momentum.

Basehart though is chilling as a model employee who got drafted to the war effort and came back as a stone cold killer.