ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

Call Northside 777 (1948)

Based on a true story, Jimmy Steward plays a crusading reporter for the Chicago Times who believes a man charge with the cold-blooded murder of a policeman is not guilty.

Henry Hawthaway directed this crime drama, which TCM host Eddie Muller calls "on the the great newspaper movies of all time." and was the Best Picture winner of 1948.

Set in the era of prohibition, this gritty gangland crime drama was filmed on location. The frequent narrator is Truman Bradley, the host of The Science Fiction Theatre. His distinctive voice lends just the right air of gravity to the movie.

The score is by Alred Newman, and it adds the beauty and drama which only a great music soundtrack can do. However, there is no music throughout most of the movie, in keeping with the "documentary" approach to the story.

For the same reason, the movie was filmed on location in Chicago, not on sound stages — a rare thing in Hollywood back when this movie was made.

IMDB has several interesting trivia items for this production.
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~ The man administering the polygraph test to convict Richard Conte was the inventor of the polygraph or lie detector machine, Leonarde Keeler. He played himself in the movie.

Note from me: Here's a funny idea. While testing his invention on himself, the operator who is working the machne says, "Mr. Keeler, did you steal this idea from someone else?"

He says no — and machine says he's lying!

~ James P. McGuire served as a Technical Advisor on this film. Jack McPhaul was the Chicago Times reporter who wrote the articles on which this film is based.. The character played by James Stewart is a composite of McGuire, who was the legman, and McPhaul.

Note from me: So, Jimmy Steward's character is combination of the man who headed the investigation and man who the man who did the leg work.

What a weird mental image that makes!

~ The man who was wrongfully imprisoned with Frank (Majczek), Tommy was released from prison in 1950, five years after Majczek. He was awarded thirty-five thousand dollars from the State of Illinois for his seventeen years of imprisonment.

Note from me: That's amounts to paltry $2,058 a year! Even adjusting for inflation, that's only $26,000 today a year in today's dollars!
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YouTube has a fine copy of the film, so if you haven't seen it, here it is . . . free of charge.

_________________Call Northside 777 (1948)


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)