Cinema Revisited: Call Northside 777 (1948)

Directed by Henry Hathaway. Starring James Stewart, Richard Conte, Lee J. Cobb, Helen Waler, Betty Garde, Moroni Olsen, Paul Harvey, John McIntyre, E.G. Marshall, Thelma Ritter, Lionel Stander. Released February 1, 1948. Running time: 111 minutes

In 1932, one of the worst crime years during prohibition, a Chicago man is sent to prison for killing a cop. Thirteen years later a cynical reporter, intrigued by the convict's mother offering a reward for more info, decides to investigate the case further.

Show in semi-documentary style, this true story (with the names changed) offers compelling entertainment. James Stewart is perfectly cast as the reporter (a role first offered to Henry Fonda who instead chose to do "Daisy Kenyon"). Stewart was brilliant at playing anything from a loveable bumbler to a hardened skeptic. In this film he plays the latter, anchoring every scene in which he appears. Richard Conte is all sensitivity and frightened confusion as the convicted man who longs to prove his innocence. Of course there are key elements of the real story that have been reworked for strong dramatics, the story is, overall, a pretty accurate retelling.

The truly engrossing element of the narrative is how the reporter gradually starts to believe in the convict's innocence, the investigation revealing enough to penetrate his skepticism. At first his cynicism is strong and seemingly fixed. While he has some sympathy for the elderly mother who scrubbed floors to raise enough money to hopefully buy more evidence, he still barks to his editor, "what if the dead cop had a mother who scrubbed floors too?" He goes to see the convict's wife who divorced him, expecting to put the case to bed. The woman claims the convict is innocent, but the reporter remains firm in his skepticism. She explains, the film reveals it in flashback. It helps the viewer to understand as much as it helps the reporter.

Helen Walker plays the reporter's wife, one of her films made after a car accident for which she suffered both injury and scandal. She had picked up three hitchhiking GIs (something that was quite common in post-war 1946) but hit a divider in the road, flipping the car, and killing one of the soldiers. The survivors later brought charges against her, but she was found innocent. The convict's wife is played by Joanne De Bergh, who made only two movies then married and left acting (she lived until 2005). Lee J. Cobb is exceptional as the hard driven editor who believes in the convict's innocence from the outset. He exemplifies the newspaperman who just has a feeling tht there is a story worth looking into.

Director Henry Hathaway is often best known for his westerns in the 1960s, directing, among other things, John Wayne's only Oscar-winning performance in "True Grit." But he also directed some fine dramas, including "Kiss of Death," "Johnny Apollo," "Souls at Sea," and "Fourteen Hours." Hathaway's succession of shots helps to propel the narrative consistently, adding to the drama's compelling factor.

There is a scene when the reporter must go see the convict's mother and state that there isn't enough evidence to go to trial. A heavily emotional scene, Hathaway concludes it by showing the mother in the foreground and the reporter in the background -- but the reporter is well it and visible while the image of the mother is bathed in darkness. It is one of the finest shots in the entire film, and shows how the director's vision enhanced such scenes.

While it is not one of the major films considered among Jimmy Stewart's work, "Call Northside 777" is every bit as good as the actor's more notable movies.