The featured image is a publicity shot, not a scene from the movie, which is best categorized as a semi-documentary film noir. It's the not the first one I've written about in this feature, but it's the only one with a major star leading the cast.
Before watching Call Northside 777 on Noir Alley, I joked that Hollywood liberal Henry Fonda should have played the crusading reporter instead of his right-wing pal, James Stewart. It turns out that Fonda was originally cast but wound up doing Daisy Kenyon with Joan Crawford instead. The main attraction was director Otto Preminger. Fonda missed out on a better movie, but Otto was as hot as a firecracker at that point.
1948's Call Northside 777 tells the story of a man unjustly convicted of murder near the end of Prohibition. It was filmed on location in Chicago; one of the first major Hollywood movies to be shot in the Windy City.
One of my favorite actors, Richard Conte, plays Frank Wiecek, who is rotting in prison for a murder he didn't commit. His mother Tillie, played by Kasia Orzaweski, is a charwoman who has saved enough money to offer a $5K reward for information to spring her son and put some spring back in her step. Ace Chicago Times reporter Jimmy Stewart notices the ad and thinks there's a story in it, so he meets Tillie:
Stewart writes a sob story about a Polish mother with an Italian son in the slammer. The last bit was mine; Tillie was played by a Pole, but Richard Conte was so Italian that the studio suits made him drop his first name, Nick. They thought Nick Conte was too ethnic for the 1940's.
Stewart remains skeptical of the story but is egged on by his editor, Lee J. Cobb who's not playing a cop or a criminal for a change. Cobb thinks there's gold in the story because of the mail it generated.
Stewart's skepticism fades after meeting Conte and asking him to take a lie detector test.
Administering the test is real life lie box scientist Leonard Keeler. He's one of the subjects of a fabulous PBS documentary, The Lie Detector. I highly recommend it.
Conte passes the test, so Stewart steps up his investigation now that he believes in Conte's innocence. Say what? Nick Conte innocent? This was, of course, 25 years before Conte played Don Barzini in The Godfather. Repeat after me: Barzini is the smart one, Tattaglia is a pimp. Thus spake Vito Corleone.
The case boils down to eyewitness Wanda Skutnick. She was the owner of the speakeasy at which a cop was allegedly killed by Conte and an equally innocent friend.
In the movie, Stewart establishes Conte's innocence by means of then modern technology. That's not how it happened in real life but that's show biz. Both the reel and real Frank Wiecek are exonerated and released from prison.
That's all the plot I'm willing to share. This feature is called pulp fiction, not pulp spoilers, after all.
Director Henry Hathaway shot Call Northside 777 documentary style aided by some swell cinematography from Joseph McDonald. This was during Hathaway's 20th Century Fox noir period. Later on, he was best known for directing John Wayne in some of his lesser Westerns. Oh well, what the hell.
Grading Time: Call Northside 777 is a well-acted and paced movie. I give it 3 1/2 stars and an Adrastos Grade of B+. It's well worth 112 minutes of your life.
This feature is rooted in visuals, so let's check out some posters.
The international posters are pretty swell as well. Here's the French long sheet:
Mais oui. It's time to go to the lobby.
I don't have any dancing refreshments jokes this week.
Let's check out the color lobby cards for this black and white movie.
The last card features our fearless reporter trying to get star witness Wanda Skutnick to recant her testimony. If my last name were Skutnick, I'd change it pronto. I am, however, kinda fonda Wanda.
If Wanda were a rural lowlife instead of an urban one, she might live in a trailer. It's time for a trailer of a different kind.
You may have noticed I've been tracking Noir Alley since I resumed this feature. There's a reason for that: Eddie Muller is my film noir muse. He gets the last word with his Noir Alley intro and outro.
No comments:
Post a Comment