Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Asad Almond A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

JohnHowardReid Call Northside 777 (1948), directed by Henry Hathaway, with James Stewart, Richard Conte and Lee J. Cobb as the stars (although all are outshone by Kasia Orzazweski in the first and most impressive of eight movie appearances), is an unusual film noir in that the lead character in this true-life reconstruction of crime and imprisonment is neither the alleged criminal nor the investigator but the killer's mother, who is handed the script's best lines and its most powerful scenes.The sequence in which out-for-a-story-and-nothing-else reporter James Stewart (who has previously raised her hopes) callously turns down the mother's pleas for help, is one of the most unforgettable moments in the whole history of world cinema.Brilliantly directed by Henry Hathaway, Call Northside 777 is one of those rare movies that really pack a punch.

Claudio Carvalho In 1932 December, in Chicago, the Polish Wanda Skutnik (Betty Garde) runs a speakeasy during the Prohibition. When the policeman Bundy is murdered inside the illegal bar, Frank W. Wiecek (Richard Conte) and his friend Tomek Zaleska are arrested and sentenced to serve 99 years each in the Illinois State Penitentiary. Eleven years later, the Chicago Times' editor Brian Kelly (Lee J. Cobb) is curious with an advertisement offering a US$ 5,000.00 reward for information about the identity of the killers of the policeman eleven years ago. He assigns the efficient reporter P.J. McNeal (James Stewart) to interview the person responsible for the ad. McNeal discovers that Frank's mother Tillie Wiecek (Kasia Orzazewski), who is a janitor, has saved her salary for eleven years to prove the innocence of her beloved son and now is offering the reward for additional information. McNeal is skeptical and believes that Frank is a cop killer, but his matter is successful and Kelly asks him to investigate further. Soon he changes his mind and realizes that Frank is a victim of the corrupt system."Call Northside 777" is an engaging movie about injustice and redemption based on a true story. The names were changed but most of the location is real. Movies of trial are usually attractive and James Stewart is one of the best actors of the cinema history. The result is a great movie directed by the also excellent Henry Hathaway. The only remark is the awful line of McNeal in the end of the movie: "Aw, look, Frank, it's a big thing when a sovereign state admits an error. But remember this: there aren't many governments in the world that would do it." Terrible way to admit an error that has cost eleven years of a man's life and made him lose his beloved wife and son. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Sublime Devoção" ("Sublime Devotion")

cowboyandvampire Call Northside 777 is half documentary, half ode to newspaper men and half noir thriller and — yes, it's completely oblivious to basic math. In fact, it socks math right on the nose gives it the bum's rush right into the gutter. The movie — ostensibly based on a true story — follows the case of two men sent to prison for allegedly killing a policeman who'd stopped in for a wee dram at a speakeasy during the Prohibition era.Fast forward 11 years — everyone is happily soused again while the pair of cop-killers are rotting in prison. But then the editor of the Chicago paper happens to see a curious classified ad: "$5,000 reward for information leading the exoneration of the one of the men. Call Northside 777 for details." The hard-bitten and probably boozy newshound smells a story and assigns his ace reporter P.J. McNeal — played by Jimmy Stewart playing the part of Jimmy Stewart. And of course, P.J. doesn't want to touch the story. But something doesn't smell quite right, like the fact that the mother of one of the convicts (played by the earnest Richard Conte) has been scrubbing floors and saving her dimes for a decade to put up the reward.This just in: human interest stories can move papers. Pretty soon, P.J. has his typewriter limbered up and he's clacking out stories that have all of Chicago sitting up and taking notice, including the flatfoots who would like to avoid any embarrassment of potentially incarcerating innocent men for a decade.The action is slow, at least compared to many noir movies, but it does provide an intense look at Chicago back in the day when newspapers still mattered. And for two possibly innocent men, the newspaper really mattered.The scenes between Jimmy Stewart and his wife (played by Helen Walker) are especially charming — "You look nice. Will you marry me?" "I did." "Oh yeah, that's right. Thanks." — but Wanda Skutnik is a character who shall live on in infamy.

Hot 888 Mama So says one of the observers on random wrongful conviction victim Frank Wiecek in this docudrama (= based on a true AND representative story of the American Way). CALL NORTHSIDE 777 is refreshing for its post-WWII naivete in which inhabitants mistook America for a Democracy (one man, one vote) as opposed to the corporate conglomerate it actually is (one dollar, one vote, codified into law explicitly with the recent CITIZENS vs. UNITED U.S. Supreme Court decision). Why someone as smart as George Bailey (or Chicago TIMES reporter Jim McNeal here) would not know this is beyond me. For 150 years, U.S. law enforcement has had two prime directives: protect rich people's property, and protect itself. Any other goal comes in a distant third at best. When anyone breaches raisons d'etre #1 OR #2, a random poor person can be easily incarcerated and\or fried if the real culprit is not conveniently available or appropriate to convict, as is the case with this story's police patsy, Frank Wiecek (and his inexplicably lost-at-the-end co-defendant, Tomek Zaleska) in this film. Released after 11 years of political imprisonment with just $10, crusading Chicago TIMES reporter Jimmy Stewart tells Frank he's lucky he's been given 91 cents for each of his 11 years at hard labor. So what if Frank lost his youth and his wife, and not even O.J. is looking for Officer Bundy's "real killer" in this case (the late police Captain Norris?). In one of Wikipedia's articles on world justice, it's noted that the percentage of inmates and executed people in the U.S. who were below the poverty line as free civilians is 71%, 20 points higher than any ACTUAL world Democracy (= one man, one vote). Though the Tea Party labels poor people as Satan's spawn, CALL NORTHSIDE 777 proves they're the salt of the earth, as Jesus said, as well as easy pickings when the criminal U.S. justice system needs a scapegoat.