Call Northside 777 (1948)

Call Northside 777
Directed by Henry Hathaway
1948/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing

[box] Tomek Zaleska: Sure, I could say I did it. Then maybe have a chance of getting out, like you say. And if I confessed, who would I name as my partner, Joe Doaks? I couldn’t make it stick for one minute. That’s the trouble with being innocent – you don’t know what really happened.[/box]

This is an enjoyable film noir/docu-drama based on a true story and filmed on location in Illinois.  The performances are all good and fairly understated and the story is photographed with style.

James Stewart plays Chicago reporter P.J. McNeil, who is assigned to look into a classified ad that offered $5,000 for information on the murder of a policeman 11 years earlier.  The mother of Frank Wiecek (Richard Conte) published the ad in hopes of proving the innocence of her son.  Although McNeil is quite sceptical, his editor (Lee J. Cobb) asks him to dig further.  Slowly, McNeil becomes convinced of Wiecek’s innocence as well and ends up championing his case despite many difficulties in tracking down evidence.

In a departure from his usual gangster roles, Richard Conte gives a sensitive portrayal of the convicted man.  According to the commentary on the DVD, James Stewart sought out his role after the box-office failure of his previous two movies, Magic Town and It’s a Wonderful Life.  Stewart was turning 40 and decided his persona of a gangling, sincere young man no longer suited him.  This was the film that formed his character for the darker roles he would play in the Mann and Hitchcock films of the 1950’s.

There’s an interesting tie-in to Antonioni’s Blow-Up in this picture.

Trailer