Popular reviews

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  Review by sakana1 ★★½ 13

  I know I'm very much in the minority here, but I really struggled with this one. Though John Alton's black and white cinematography is as striking as ever, to modern eyes, He Walked by Night feel like a very static, bog-standard piece of copaganda, weighed down by a barely functional screenplay full of cliches and weak cop "banter." It also carefully — and, presumably, intentionally — removes any and all personality from most of its characters, requiring the audience to awkwardly attach itself to the broad category of 'Cop' as protagonist.

  Alongside its impressive final chase scene through LA's storm drains (something which, as the TCM write-up points out, predated The Third Man's far more famous similar sequence by a…

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  Review by Slig001 ★★★½

  He Walked by Night is one of those police propaganda noirs, complete with serious voice-over. This one is apparently based on a true story and follows a police investigation after one of their own is murdered following a seemingly routine checkup. The film splits the focus between the police investigation and the criminal himself; here depicted as a resourceful individual with a knowledge of electronics, police procedure and the Los Angeles storm drain network. The police aspect is sure to get in the usual range of methods used to catch up with criminals - including undercover work and an identikit presentation in front of a live audience of previous victims. It has to be said that the focus on the…

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  Review by RetroHound ★★★½

  Docu-drama police procedural about a very clever criminal who shoots and kills a policeman. It has the usual voice-over but is a pretty interesting story. They never really go into why he does his various activities, he begins with break-ins and stealing electronics but then switches to liquor store hold-ups, which one would assume are petty cash compared with the electronics.

  The film opens with an interesting description of Los Angeles, the fastest growing city in the US after WWII, "A bunch of suburbs in search of a city," etc.

  Police procedurals are always interesting to see what they got done with what equipment and technology.

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  Review by Raphael Georg Klopper ★★★★ 5

  Bold and daunting enough to be considered transgressive for its time, even if helded back by a documental obnoxious narration that turns some of its parts dated. But as always, is in the power of the filmmaking that elevates the film above its limitations and lets de artistry dictate its iconic status. He Walked by Night may not be an iconically remembered Noir classic, but is a masterfully made one! With director Alfred L. Werker getting fired mid production, and most of the work going for Mann’s unfairly uncredited work here, I most likely bet to be the reason why the film made it as superb as it is.

  At one hand it can easily be seen as an almost…

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  Review by Headhunter666 ★★★½ 8

  NOIRvember

  
  Die Polizei von Los Angeles jagt einen Einbrecher und Polizistenmörder.
  SCHRITTE IN DER NACHT behandelt diesen Fall nach wahren Ereignissen und jener wird hier auch dementsprechend dokumentarisch erzählt.
  Der Verbrecher ist der Böse und die Cops sind die Guten. Fertig.
  Charakterliche Feinabstufungen fallen hinten über.

  Interessant sind die Einblicke der Ermittlungsarbeit jener Zeit die zeigen mit welch akribischen Aufwand die verschiedenen Abteilungen versuchen den Gangster zu knacken und zu fassen.
  Los Angeles gibt hier auch mal wieder einen dankbaren Darsteller mit vielen tollen Blickwinkeln und Locations ab, hinzu kommt eine dichte S/W Inszenierung.
  Das Finale in der Kanalisation hat es auch in sich, hat eine brodelnde Schärfe am Start und die Schießerei mit Schall- und Knalleffekt dürfte auch einem Regisseur wie Michael Mann mehr als Spass machen.

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  Review by HKFanatic ★★★★

  Primarily watched this because it's listed as being one of author James Ellroy's top crime movie recommendations and, hey, with its emphasis on mundane police work and shaking down leads, it does feel like one of Ellroy's novels come to life...except for the fact that all of the cops here are on the straight and narrow—there are no serial adulterers, virulent racists, or vigilante killers, just dogged officers putting in the long hours to catch a criminal who's killed one of their own.

  Much like "The Naked City" and "T-Men," this is one of those films from this era that employs a documentary-like voiceover (and apparently "T-Men" director Anthony Mann performed uncredited work here), but it fits the formal, no-nonsense…

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  Review by Owen ★★★★

  Police procedural that seemingly manages to capture something real about the rapidly growing post-war LA and, as many other reviews have pointed out, has visuals that could serve as an exemplar of how Noir looks.

  The cinematography is absolutely amazing, and earns the film it's four stars, bringing us night time LA from the view point Radio Car or street hustler. It culminates in an incredibly shot gun battle in the storm sewers that features gas masked LAPD shooting to kill that manages, along with the general tone of violence and arbitrary justice to undermine anything reassuring in the ever present voice over about the cities police.

  A cop is shot dead by a would be burglar and the cities…

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  Review by Joe ★★★★½

  "A criminal, like any human being, has his own habit patterns; unconscious traits that can lead to his downfall."

  Tight, cheap proto-Dragnet (Jack Webb co-stars!) procedural that begins with a bright and sunny view of beautiful albeit crime-ridden Los Angeles and gradually descends into a pit of Hell. Directed in part by an uncredited Anthony Mann, whose fingerprints would appear to be all over the surprisingly brutal bits of violence here.

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  Review by Timcop ★★★½ 5

  Do people really like to socialize with their milkmen?

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  Review by AThousandSons ★★★★

  The Los Angeles police search for the man who killed one of their own. The killer is smart, changing his MO each time he strikes.

  He Walked by Night has a lot in common with chase movies with the stakes always being escalated. The black and white photography hides an inexpensive production for one that casts moral judgement within shadows.

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  Review by Peter Labuza ★★★½

  Discussed here on the podcast. A Los Angeles version of The Naked City, anonymously directed by Alfred Werker save for the action scenes, most of which I assume are Mann (notably the final sewer chase). Better than T-Men by virtue of its documentary appropriation as a film obsessed with various technologies that both cops and criminals use - a strange highlight simply being the long sequence in which they build a sketch of the artist. Most films would skip right over that.

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  Review by Scarecrow88 ★★★★

  Gritty, dirty LA noir from the late 40s with a memorably nasty psychotic robber and killer by typical television hero, Richard Basehart. Currently on Paramount+ there is a print of “He Walked by Night” that looks as if a lab tech was scavenging through a vault, came across a forgotten box of canisters, hitting paydirt. It certainly looks as if depreciation has done its job…the quality is coarse, and it sure looks as if time and mismanagement walloped the print over the years. Jack Webb is a forensics tech who assists Roy Roberts in ballistics, putting together a face sketch, and even pointing out how Basehart uses nitroglycerin in the commission of crimes. Brady is a detective whose partner was…