He Walked by Night

Alfred L. Werker: He Walked by Night (US 1948). Los Angeles Police Department: Scott Brady (Police Sgt. Marty Brennan), James Cardwell (Police Sgt. Chuck Jones), Jack Webb (Lee Whitey, forensics expert). Photo: La Cinémathèque française.

Il marchait dans la nuit / Hän kulkee öisin.

Alfred L. Werker

États-Unis / 1948 / 79 min / 35 mm / VOSTF / Copie restaurée

d'après Crane Wilbur

Avec Richard Basehart, Scott Brady, Roy Roberts.

Helsinki premiere: 17 March 1950 - Savoy - released by Parvisfilmi Oy.

Copie restaurée 35 mm prêtée par UCLA Film & Television Archive. Restauration financée par la George Lucas Family Foundation et la Film Foundation.

Rétrospective Anthony Mann.

E-subtitles in French n.c.

Viewed at La Cinémathèque française, Salle Georges Franju, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris, M° Bercy Lignes 14, 6, le 10 avril 2024

La Cinémathèque française : " Non crédité au générique, Anthony Mann participe à la mise en scène d'Alfred L. Werker. Une série B noire efficace, qui place le spectateur du côté des policiers de Los Angeles, à la recherche d'un homme qui a tué l'un des leurs. "

AA: A police procedural, a crime thriller, a murder mystery.

Without credit, Anthony Mann directed several scenes for He Walked by Night, which is why it is included in his retrospective.

As distinct from Mann's previous crime stories (Desperate, Railroaded, T-Men and Raw Deal), He Walked by Night is not a gangster film.

It is the story of a lone criminal, Roy Martin (Richard Basehart), who goes under different names and disguises, an electronics mastermind, a former radio technician for the US army and a former civilian employee for the police, which is why he is on the inside track in police procedure and can follow police radio. Roy is also an excellent athlete and cat burglar who can climb onto rooftops and sneak into sewers. Roy has also surgical skills and can remove a bullet himself, avoiding a hospital visit. For security, he has a little dog, a perfect watchdog, his only friend.

Although Roy Martin is a professional burglar, he is not professional enough to refrain from weapons, and using them - to kill a policeman, no less. Police murder is the beginning of the end for Roy Martin. At the hospital, where Sergeant Robert Rawlins (John McGuire) of the Hollywood Police Division has been taken, the shot of Mrs. Rawlins (Louise Kane) is brief and laconic and conveys infinite sorrow.

Now it's professionals against a professional, and the elusive Roy Martin proves an exceptionally difficult mystery to solve. The facial identification sequence is a highlight. Starting from facial outlines, and proceeding to hair, eyes, nose and lips a stunning likeness is recreated in teamwork with a group of eyewitnesses. The resulting picture is good enough for a warrant.

The anthology piece of He Walked by Night is the formidable chase in the tunnels. We learn about the extraordinary underground sewer and storm-drain system of Los Angeles. Roy knows his way around in its canals and tunnels. For the first time the Los Angeles sewer network was used in a film. The Paris underground tunnels are of course familiar from the Phantom of the Opera film adaptations. I seem to remember Paris sewers also in film adaptations of The Rat with Ivor Novello. Roman catacombs are familiar from Christian persecution tales (such as Quo vadis? [IT 1913]) and films of Federico Fellini. But He Walked by Night preceded The Third Man and might have inspired it. Later, Andrzej Wajda set his resistance saga Kanal into the tunnels of Nazi-occupied Warsaw.

Visually, He Walked by Night is an another masterwork by the cinematographer John Alton. It is a mix of sober realism and stunning expressionism. The criminal walks by night, and we see a lot of moving shadows.

He Walked by Night was the third film and the first starring role for Richard Basehart, a breakthrough role, an actor's dream as "a man of a thousand faces". His gentle features are his greatest disguise. Hit by a bullet and carving it out with his own hands we see him tortured with pain.

He Walked by Night has hallmarks of film noir, a film current with no absolute definition. While recognizing the affinities, I still would not call it a film noir. He Walked by Night is a sober crime movie, talking with a voice of reason and authority only, a rational tale about police professionals solving an exceptionally difficult mystery of a criminal professional. It is not oneiric, not a nightmare movie. The streets are not dark with anything more than night.

The film is in public domain, which is usually bad news for print quality.

But this print is excellent: " Copie restaurée 35 mm prêtée par UCLA Film & Television Archive. Restauration financée par la George Lucas Family Foundation et la Film Foundation ". Here one can feel the authentic frisson of John Alton "the prince of darkness".