He Walked By Night (1948)

Description

Loosely based on the real-life 1946 crime spree of Erwin “Machine Gun” Walker (1917-2008). Unlike the character in the film, Walker was captured, tried, and sentenced to death for first-degree murder. The screenplay takes us to post WW II, Los Angeles. Roy Morgan is a burglar who listens in to radio police calls, allowing him to stay one step ahead of the cops. After Morgan kills a police officer, Sergeants Brennan and Jones have little success in putting the clues of the case together. They target low-level criminals, such as Paul Reeves, hoping he’ll lead them to bigger fish, specially, the one who shot and killed the cop. But when Jones is wounded in a shoot-out with Morgan, Brennan employs all facets of detective work, including forensics and informants, to find the elusive and clever criminal. The film is said to have been the inspiration for the radio series “Dragnet” which debuted a year later.