826.HE WALKED BY NIGHT(ENGLISH,1948)

He Walked By Night(English,1948)

Crime,Action

✪✪✪½


Directors: Alfred L. Werker (as Alfred Werker), Anthony Mann
Writers: Crane Wilbur (story), Crane Wilbur (screenplay)
Stars: Richard Basehart, Scott Brady, Roy Roberts


     He did crimes.He killed people who came in between his deeds.Absolutely no records available on that man.Just a name 'Roy Morgan' won't do good to solve a crime at that period.He was brilliant,never had left any trace of him.He killed cops,injured them.He wasn't a bandit.He wasn't fighting for any of his rights.He was a criminal,a cold-blooded criminal and the world knows him just by a name 'Roy Morgan'.The movie was loosely based on the real life crimes of  Erwin "Machine-Gun" Walker who was a radio technician in the Police department.

  A man who was questioned by a cop by a cop during his night patrol got shot leading to his death.Then numerous crimes,mostly in the form of burglaries took place.Police set up a special investigation team to catch him.Though,he was near to being caught,Roy had various means to survive himself from the cops.The cant and mouse game went on creating causalities at times.

   'He Walked By Night' is a Neo-Noir movie narrated in a semi-documentary style.A movie which absolutely concentrates on the crimes and the investigation based on it.This movie tries every way to be out of the traditional way of story telling by it's semi-docu style making.One could feel like watching an investigation report or a documentary with the real life characters speaking to the audience.

 There were 2 scenes which  pictured in absolute silence,except for the foot-steps and gun shots.One was during a live shooting between Roy and Cops.Another towards the climax.Those were really classic.A man who had no records on his existence,even none knew about him.Even his photograph made from available sources wasn't enough.Some one might consider him as a person lived him the 16th century.

Last Word:An under rated piece of crime movie.Absolutely,go for it.It is far better than most of the modern-day crime flicks.The movie appeared too real to be a live action breaking news in Television.