Call Northside 777 (1948)
Call Northside 777 (1948)
„Call Northside 777“ is a 1948 reality-based newspaper film noir directed by Henry Hathaway. The screenplay by Jerome Cady, Jay Dratler, Leonard Hoffman (adaptation) and Quentin Reynolds (adaptation) is based on 1944 Chicago Daily Times articles by James P. McGuire and Jack McPhaul.
In Chicago in 1932, during Prohibition, a policeman is murdered inside a speakeasy. Frank Wiecek and another man are quickly arrested, and, in November 1933, are each convicted and sentenced to serve 99 years imprisonment for the killing.
Eleven years later, Wiecek’s mother, Tillie Wiecek, puts a classified ad in the Chicago Times offering a $5,000 reward for information about the true killers of the police officer. This leads the paper’s city editor, Brian Kelly, to assign reporter P. J. McNeal to look more closely into the case. McNeal is skeptical at first, believing Wiecek to be guilty. But he starts to change his mind, and meets increased resistance from the police and the state’s attorney’s office, who are unwilling to be proved wrong. This is quickly followed by political pressure from the state capital, where politicians are anxious to end a story that might prove embarrassing to the administration.
Eventually, Wiecek is proved innocent by, among other things, the enlarging of a photograph showing the date on a newspaper that proves that a key witness statement was false. (In actuality, innocence was determined not as claimed in the film but when it was found out that the prosecution had suppressed the fact that the main witness had initially declared that she could not identify the two men involved in the police shooting.)
A 1948 American Black & White reality-based newspaper drama film directed by Henry Hathaway, produced by Otto Lang and Darryl F. Zanuck, screenplay by Jerome Cady and Jay Dratler, adaptation by Leonard Hoffman and Quentin Reynolds, based on the 1944 Chicago Daily Times articles by reporters James P. McGuire and Jack McPhaul, cinematography by Joseph MacDonald, starring James Stewart, Richard Conte, Lee J. Cobb, Helen Walker, Betty Garde, Michael Chapin, Howard Smith, Moroni Olsen, J.M. Kerrigan, Paul Harvey, George Tyne, Leonarde Keeler, and E. G. Marshall. Screen debut appearances of John McIntire, Joanne De Bergh, and Kasia Orzazewski.
Narrated by Truman Bradley. 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.
Based on Joseph Majczek, who was wrongly convicted of the murder of a Chicago policeman in 1932, one of the worst years of organized crime during Prohibition. After being released from prison in 1945, Majczek worked as an insurance agent in Chicago. For his wrongful imprisonment, the State of Illinois awarded him twenty-four thousand dollars, which Majczek gave to his mother Tillie. Majczek eventually remarried his wife, with whom he had divorced while he was in prison. His last years were spent in a mental institution. He died in 1983.
In 1946 James McGuire and Karin Walsh, the real-life people on whom Jimmy Stewart’s and Lee J. Cobbs’s characters were respectively based, won the prestigious Heywood Broun Award for excellence in investigative journalism for the Chicago Times for „stories helping free a man wrongly convicted of murder.“
The Chicago Daily Times merged with the Chicago Sun in 1948, the year this movie was released, and became known as the Chicago Sun-Times.
James P. McGuire served as a Technical Advisor on this film. He is the Chicago Times reporter who wrote the articles on which this film is based, and was the basis of the character played by James Stewart.
This film won The Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Motion Picture Screenplay in 1949.
This was the first Hollywood-produced feature film to be shot entirely on-location in Chicago. Views of the Merchandise Mart as well as Holy Trinity Polish Mission can be seen throughout the film. A scene filmed at the Stateville Penitentiary shows the interior of the so-called „Roundhouse,“ a „panopticon“ cell block built according to a design originated by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham. The „Roundhouse“ where Frank Wiecek (Richard Conte) is kept at the Stateville prison was the only remaining panopticon still in use in the United States in the 1990s. It was closed in 2016, but the structure remains, due to its historical significance.
“The Screen Guild Theater“ broadcast a 30-minute radio adaptation of the movie on October 7, 1948, with James Stewart and Richard Conte reprising their film roles.
When McNeal tries to convince Zaleska to take the blame for the murder to exonerate Wiecek, Zaleska asks if he should name „Joe Doakes“ as his partner. At the time, Joe Doakes was another name for „Joe Blow“ or „John Doe.“
It reached number one at the US box office in its 3rd week of release with a gross of $500,000 from 17 cities.
The N.Y Sun, „Calls for three cheers from every working newspaper man and, for that matter, for at least two from every moviegoer.“
A great newspaper caper noir. An engaging movie about injustice and redemption. By far the best …
Cast:
- James Stewart – P.J. McNeal
- Richard Conte – Frank Wiecek
- Lee J. Cobb – Brian Kelly
- Helen Walker – Laura McNeal
- Betty Garde – Wanda Skutnik
- Kasia Orzazewski – Tillie Wiecek
- Joanne De Bergh – Helen Wiecek
- Howard Smith – K.L. Palmer
- Moroni Olsen – Parole Board Chairman
- John McIntire – Sam Faxon
- Paul Harvey – Martin Burns
- Jane Crowley – Anna Felczak
- Ray Spiker – Barfly
- Buck Harrington – Bartender
- Edward Peil Jr. – Bartender
- Otto Waldis – Boris Siskovich
- Al Capone – Capone (archive footage)
- Thelma Ritter – Captain’s Secretary
- Bill Vendetta – Chicago Times Photographer
- Wanda Perry – Chicago Times Telephone Operator
- Ann Staunton – Chicago Times Telephone Operator
- Rex Downing – Copy Boy
- Lionel Stander – Corrigan
- Paul Kruger – Detective
- Norman McKay – Detective
- John Dillinger – Dillinger (archive footage)
- Henry Kulky – First Bartender
- Michael Chapin – Frank Wiecek Jr.
- Carl Kroenke – Guard
- Freddie Steele – Holdup Man
- George Turner – Holdup Man
- Perry Ivins – Illinois State Journal Technician
- Lester Sharpe – Illinois State Journal Technician
- Robert B. Williams – Illinois State Journal Technician
- John Bleifer – Jan Gruska
- Addison Richards – John Albertson
- Samuel S. Hinds – Judge Charles Moulton
- Arthur Peterson – Keeler’s Polygraph Assistant
- Leonarde Keeler – Leonarde Keeler
- George Spaulding – Man on Parole Board
- Peter Seal – Minor Role
- Truman Bradley – Narrator (voice)
- Joseph Forte – Parole Board Member
- George Melford – Parole Board Member
- Charles Miller – Parole Board Member
- Dick Ryan – Parole Board Member
- Eddie Dunn – Patrolman John W. Bundy
- Robert Karnes – Pete
- Ben Erway – Photo Lab Technician
- Jimmy Dime – Poker Player
- Walter Greaza – Police Capt. Norris
- Larry J. Blake – Police Photographic Technician
- George Cisar – Policeman
- Lew Eckles – Policeman
- Philip Lord – Policeman
- George Pembroke – Policeman
- Duke Watson – Policeman
- Abe Dinovitch – Polish Man
- Jack Mannick – Polish Man
- Joe Ploski – Polish Man
- Stanley Gordon – Prison Clerk
- Charles Lane – Prosecuting Attorney
- E.G. Marshall – Rayska
- Jonathan Hale – Robert Winston
- Cy Kendall – Second Bartender
- Dollie Caillet – Secretary
- Helen Foster – Secretary
- Richard Rober – Sgt. Larson
- William Post Jr. – Sixth Precinct Desk Sergeant
- J.M. Kerrigan – Sullivan - Court Bailiff
- Robert Adler – Taxicab Driver
- George Tyne – Tomek Zaleska
- Richard Bishop – Warden of Stateville Prison
- Percy Helton – William Decker
„Kennwort 777“ ist ein realitätsbezogener Zeitungsfilm von 1948 unter der Regie von Henry Hathaway. Das Drehbuch von Jerome Cady, Jay Dratler, Leonard Hoffman (Adaption) und Quentin Reynolds (Adaption) basiert auf Artikeln der Chicago Daily Times aus dem Jahr 1944 von James P. McGuire und Jack McPhaul.
Im Chicago des Jahres 1932, während der Prohibition, wird ein Polizist in einer Kneipe ermordet. Frank Wiecek und ein weiterer Mann werden schnell verhaftet und im November 1933 zu je 99 Jahren Haft für den Mord verurteilt.
Elf Jahre später gibt Wieceks Mutter eine Kleinanzeige in der Chicago Times auf, in der eine Belohnung von 5.000 Dollar für Hinweise auf die wahren Mörder des Polizisten ausgesetzt wird. Dies veranlasst den Stadtredakteur der Zeitung, Brian Kelly, den Reporter P. J. McNeal zu beauftragen, den Fall genauer zu untersuchen. McNeal ist anfangs skeptisch und hält Wiecek für schuldig. Doch er beginnt, seine Meinung zu ändern, und stößt auf zunehmenden Widerstand bei der Polizei und der Staatsanwaltschaft, die nicht bereit sind, sich das Gegenteil beweisen zu lassen. Schnell kommt politischer Druck aus der Landeshauptstadt hinzu, wo die Politiker darauf bedacht sind, eine Geschichte zu beenden, die sich für die Regierung als peinlich erweisen könnte.
Schließlich wird Wieceks Unschuld bewiesen, unter anderem durch die Vergrößerung eines Fotos, das das Datum auf einer Zeitung zeigt, die beweist, dass eine wichtige Zeugenaussage falsch war. (In Wirklichkeit wurde die Unschuld nicht, wie im Film behauptet, festgestellt, sondern als sich herausstellte, dass die Staatsanwaltschaft die Tatsache unterdrückt hatte, dass die Hauptzeugin zunächst erklärt hatte, sie könne die beiden an der Polizeischießerei beteiligten Männer nicht identifizieren.