Rent Call Northside 777 (1948)

Gripping - Call Northside 777 review by sb

FILM & REVIEW Before WWII Jimmy Stewart was seen as a lightweight comic actor but having seen combat and ending as a full Colonel returned looking for meatier parts and this was his breakthrough film. A terrific true life journalistic investigation around the murder of a Chicago cop 11 years ago during prohibition where two Polish men were convicted . As ad is placed in the Chicago Times and is picked up by cynical newspaper man Mcneal (Stewart). The ad is placed by one of the convicted men’s Mother who has scraped together the money and wants McNeals help. He is doubtful at first but as his editor Cobb points out it’s a human interest story and that sells papers. Soon his mail sack is full and his phone never stops ringing with messages of support so agrees to go to the State Penn to interview one of the convicts (Conte) and while still not convinced begins to dig deeper. It’s the classic little guy vs the system movie that Stewart plays so well and it’s really gripping as he too becomes convinced of his innocence. It makes full use of new technology with lie detectors , mini cameras and photographs sent over phone wires all aiding the case. It placed the benchmark for most of Stewart’s career and it’s a cracking film - 4/5

You must want me to go pretty bad so I’m going but I want ya to know that ya didn’t get away with it - Call Northside 777 review by LJ

A reporter investigates a case of a man who may have been wrongly imprisoned. Once you get past the clumsy narration at the start, this drama is quite interesting. However it is based on a true story, and the film came out before all of that story had been resolved, so it does feel like it is missing something or as if more could happen.

Includes spoilers. - Call Northside 777 review by Steve

About the turn of the fifties, Hollywood began to accommodate Italian Neorealism, particularly in its crime films. The most influential release in that style was Jules Dassin's The Naked City. My personal favourite is Call Northside 777 which has a moving and suspenseful story with a knockout ending.  

It is based on real events sourced from newspaper articles. James Stewart plays a Chicago reporter who is alerted by a mother's offer of a reward saved up through 11 years working as a cleaner to investigate a miscarriage of justice which resulted in her innocent son being sent to prison for 99 years.  

Stewart is credible as a cynical newsman who becomes obsessed with the faulty verdict from so long ago that many of the protagonists are dead. Henry Hathaway made a few of these documentary noirs, with the big city locations, and powerful, declamatory voice overs.

Compared with the Italians this is processed, mainstream stuff and the politics is muted. But it was still groundbreaking in US cinema and unashamed to show realistic poverty, particularly among immigrants. Hathaway was a conservative, but these stories about the victims of institutional corruption were usually made by the Hollywood left.