Harrison's Reports (1948)

182 "He Walked By Night" with Richard Basehart and Scott Brady {Eagle-Lion, J^pvember; time, 79 min.) Very good! It is a crime melodrama with a wallop, as good, and in some respects, even better than "T* Men" and "Canon City." The story — that of an intense police hunt for a shrewd murderer, is simple, but expert handling in straight documentary style has made it an unusually exciting and fascinating melodrama of its kind, tense from beginning to end. Towards the finish there is a furious chase sequence that takes place in a storm sewer system under Los Angeles. This chase has been staged in so exciting a manner that it will keep the spectator on the edge of his seat. There is no phoney comedy or romantic angles to slow up the action, and the performances of the entire cast are first-rate. Richard Basehart, as the elusive, resourceful murderer, is exceptionally good : — Halted by a policeman who had seen him trying the door of a closed radio shop, Basehart shoots down the officer and escapes. Sergeant Roy Roberts, aided by detectives Scott Brady and Jim Cardwell takes charge of the investigation, but despite their thorough efforts the killer, of whom they had only a brief description, remains at large. Meanwhile Basehart, posing as an inventor, burglarizes radio shops and sells the loot to Whit Bissell, unsuspecting owner of an electronic laboratory. A stolen television set is traced to the laboratory and an elaborate plan laid to trap Basehart when he calls for monies due him. But he manages to shoot his way to freedom, and continues his career of robbery and murder. After seven months of extremely efficient police work, Basehart continues to elude capture. But his ability to anticipate every police move sets Brady to thinking and he comes up with a hunch that the killer might even be a policeman. He begins a painstaking check of every police station in the vicinity and eventually discovers that Basehart had been a civilian dispatcher in the Glendale police department before the war. With Basehart's photograph and last known address to guide him, Brady succeeds in tracing him to his cottage hideout in a Los Angeles suburb. An elaborate police trap is set to capture him, but Basehart escapes from the cottage through a secret passage and darts down a sewer drain amid a hail of bullets. The police quickly block every drain in the system, while a squad led by Brady and Roberts descends into the sewer and gives chase through the dark passageways. They eventually block all the outlets and trap him like a rat in a hole, killing him when he elects to shoot it out. Robert T. Kane produced it and Alfred Werker dirceted it from a screen play by John C. Higgins and Crane Wilbur, based on Mr. Wilbur's original story. Mature screen fare. "Dulcimer Street" with Richard Attenborough and Alastair Sim (JJnivAnt'l, no release date set; time, 112 min.) This British-made picture is an odd mixture of domestic comedy, farce, and murder melodrama, entertaining in some stretches and dull in others. On the whole it shapes up as a fair entertainment, but it is doubtful if it will do much at the box-office, for the players are unknown in this country, and the running time is much too long for what it has to offer. The rambling, episodic tale, which can stand considerable cutting, is a combination of three interwoven stories dealing with the problems in the lives of a number of people who live in the same rooming house in a middle-class London neighborhood. There is consider able human interest and comedy in some of the incidents, as well as a highly melodramatic sequence involving a brutal slaying. The performances are good, but somehow most of the characters are not real— they are more like caricatures. A richly comic portrayal is provided by Alastair Sim, as a fake spiritualist, a charlatan who preys on silly widows: — Among those residing in a rooming house owned by Joyce Carey, a widow, are Ivy St. Clair, a frousy hatcheck girl; Gladys Henson and her only son, Richard Attenborough, a garage mechanic; and Susan Shaw, who lived with her parents, Fay Compton and Wylie Watson, who found it difficult to resign himself to a life of retirement. Young Attenborough, attracted to Susan, is not encouraged by her. To earn more money so as to impress her with a good time, he takes to stealing cars. He becomes mixed up with an old girl-friend, who insists that he give her a lift home. She realizes that the car was stolen when he refuses to stop for a policeman. Panicky, she tries to make him stop the car, and in the struggle he strikes her, causing her to fall out of the car to her accidental death. He escapes from the scene and is not suspected of the crime until months later when Andrew Crawford, a young detective who had become interested in Susan, recognizes in her home a mounted radiator cap that Attenborough had given to her as a gift. The discovery and subsequent investigation result in Attenborough's arrest and conviction for the murder, despite the efforts of his neighbors to save him. Susan's uncle, Stephen Murray, a politically-minded agitator who believed in lost causes, organizes a drive to obtain signatures on a petition demanding Attenborough 's reprieve, but their efforts go for naught when the young man is reprieved without their assistance. It is a Launder-Gilliat production, directed by Sidney Gilliat from a screen play written by himself and J. B. Williams. Unobjectionable morally. "Black Eagle" with William Bishop and Virginia Patton (Columbia, Sept. 16; time, 76 min.) Fairly good for a double bill. Although the story has been adapted from O. Henry's "The Passing of Black Eagle," which dealt with the life and doings of a spirited horse, the plot concerns itself mainly with a young man who seeks to avoid trouble only to become embroiled in a feud between horse ranchers. The plot is rather complicated, but the acting is good, the action pretty fast, and there are some lively fights. Since villainy plays a prominent part in the proceedings, it can hardly be considered suitable for children, but it should go over with those who like their Westerns strong: — Running away from everybody because of bitter experiences with people, William Bishop decides to head South and hops on a box car containing Black Eagle, a frightened thoroughbred, and an upset crate of rifles. The horse had been beaten by a villainous fellow, who had tossed a young man out of the car, killing him. Bishop wins Black Eagle's confidence and, as the train grinds to a halt in Texas, he is met by Virginia Patton, who persuades him to help her unload the rifles and the horse and to take them to the ranch of her brother. It comes to light that the rifles were intended for a group of horse ranchers who suspected that they were being swindled by James Bell, an agent for a horse buyer. In the course of events, Bishop learns that the young man who was killed in the fall from the box car was Virginia's