Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

thursdaysrecords This is more than just a formula crime drama, but clearly the blue print for the long running TV Police Drama "Dragnet". Focusing on the enormous law enforcement system in the most populated city in the USA, audiences get a peak into the (then) innovative techniques of solving violent crime. The villain here is a loner with an affinity for electronics, a field still in its early stage. A large TV set (in 1948) is still somewhat of a novelty that wasn't necessarily manufactured, but rather "built" by an expert. To create a phantom drawing of the criminal, an overlay slide projector is used to replace the sketch artist. For a post WWII audience, all of these methods border on science fiction. - With the cooperation of many victims, clues are collected to identify and catch the bad guy. - As this film was produced in the middle of the "Hayes Code Era", no one needed to worry about the outcome. In those days it was understood that crime doesn't pay, and anyone who repeatedly murdered in cold blood, will be brought to justice, one way or another...usually the most obvious way. - An above average entry in the 1940s Film Noire Genre, but certainly unique in the innovative story telling a la Jack Webb.

arfdawg-1 Allegedly based on a true story. Base in LA of yesterday...not today.More or less directed like an episode o Dragnet. I used to love Dragnet when I was a kid and they had it in re runs on local TV.Unfortunately this movie feels very dated.The plot:In the Post-World War II, in Los Angeles, a criminal shoots and kills a police officer in the middle of the night. Without any leads, the chief of the LAPD assigns Sgt. Chuck Jones and Sgt. Marty Brennan to investigate the murder and apprehend the culprits. When the dealer of electronics devices, Paul Reeves, is caught selling a stolen projector, the police identifies the criminal, and connects him to other unsolved robberies. Using the witnesses of his heists, they draw their face, but the true identity of the smart and intelligent criminal is not disclosed. The perseverance of Sgt. Marty Brennan in his investigation gives a clue where he might live.

AaronCapenBanner Alfred L. Werker & Anthony Mann co-directed this realistic semi-documentary thriller that stars Richard Basehart as cunning but disturbed electronics expert Roy Martin, who becomes a wanted killer after shooting a policeman who was getting too close to identifying him after a robbery. He proves to be most resourceful and mysterious, though is identified by eyewitness testimony, mainly an electronics dealer(played by Whit Bissell) who becomes a reluctant police witness, who eventually track him down into his lair in the L.A. underground sewer and drain system of canals and tunnels, leading to a final confrontation... Exciting and compelling film with good performances and direction, even though the killer remains an enigma.

sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** Semidocumentary style Film Nior classic that's a lot like the film "Street with no Name" released in the same year. "He Walked by Night" is based on the real life crimes of former L.A police department employee and WWII vet Erwin "Mechine-Gun" Walker who terrorized the city in the mid 1940's with a string of shootings and armed robberies. Roy Martin, Richard Besehart, has been burglarizing electrical appliances stores in L.A and pretending that what he stole he in fact invented. Martin makes a living, and a damn good one at that, by selling his stolen booty to his fence-man, who in fact doesn't known it's stolen property, electronic dealer Paul Reeves, Whit Bissell.It's when Martin is spotted by an LAPD cop one night hanging around an electronic store and looking like he's up to no good that he gunned him down thus going up the ladder in the world of crime from just a plain garden variety burglar to a wanted all points, in the state, cop killer! With every cop in the LAPD out looking for him Martin is able to avoid them in slipping into the vast 700 mile L.A sewer system thus preventing him from being captured. Despite all the precautions he takes Martin makes the mistake of going back to his "Fence-Man" Paul Reeves to make sure, by bashing his skull in and cracking a couple of his ribs, that he doesn't turn him into the police. That tips the cops on the case Sgt. Marty Brennan, Scott Brady,& Sgt. Chuck Jones,James Cardwell, off to Martin's identity. That's not after Jones ended up being brutally attacked and beaten by Martin when he spotted him and his partner Sgt. Brennan hiding out in Reeves' office.***SPOILERS*** With his cover blown thanks to the US Post Office in tracking him down in this out of the way L.A bungalow colony Martin is now not only on the run but has his secret hideout, the sewer system, found out as well. Like a cornered rat having nowhere to go with his escape route, a manhole cover, blocked by an LAPD patrol car all he can do now is shoot it out with the oncoming police that in Martin's case turns out to be fatal.The sewer system scenes in the movie were later used, in 1956, in the Lon Cheney Jr horror suspense movie "Indestrutable Man" where he played the just brought back from the dead, through a massive electronic jolt, zombie-like mass murderer Butcher Benton. The movie "He Walked by Night" also has a 27 year old Jack Webb playing police forensic specialist Lee Whitey. Webb became so interested in police work during the filming that with the support of LAPD cop Sgt. Marty Wynn, who served as a police technical adviser in the film, he came up with the idea for his blockbuster radio and later TV police drama series "Dragnet".