Forget "The Naked City." "He Walked by Night" is an explosive, no frills thriller packed with enough action, solid performances and striking cinematography to render Jules Dassin's crime story as obsolete. Of course, history proved that "The Naked City" is better known and itself inspired a TV series. Well, this film not only stars Jack Webb in a small role as a forensics expert, it practically inspired the TV series "Dragnet," so there!
Richard Basehart is the lone gunman, Roy, who kills a policeman in the opening sequence while trying to rob a TV/radio store! For 1948, that is incredibly shocking violence! This killer gets away like a black cat in the night, robbing any kind of store and hiding out in the L.A. storm drains that covers many miles before returning to his bungalow with a barking dog. Roy shoots to kill but sometimes he uses the gun only as a threat in some robberies and his M.O. keeps changing. Roy works for a Mr. Reeves (Whit Bissell) as a technician and invents more elaborate electronics (of course, he had been pilfering all the electronic parts). This guy is also a step ahead of the police since he listens in on their frequency! How on earth are the cops going to catch up with him?
Truthfully, "He Walked by Night" is not a psychological profile of Roy nor is there any real depth to the cops (other than Scott Brady as Police Sgt. Marty Brennan who does a lot of the detective work in the latter half and Basehart's depiction of how antisocial Roy is). No, actually the film is a rip-roaring semi-documentary of a real-life case and it keeps you on edge through the workings of the multiple murders of cops and the forensic details. "He Walked by Night" is meant to be shallowly conceived and unglamorous, to evoke the tedious work cops must do to catch a criminal though not one frame of the film is tedious (the drawing of the suspect piece-by-piece by the witnesses is enthralling). The shootouts are crisp, brief and alarming especially the one in Mr. Reeves' office (courtesy of the sharp shadowy camera angles by DP John Alton) and of course the storm drain finale which is exceptionally done (allegedly it inspired Carol Reed's similar finale in "The Third Man" though I think that is yet to be proven). Exciting and first-rate all the way.
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