Call Northside 777 (1948)

Chicago reporter P.J. McNeal re-opens a ten year old murder case.

Director:

Henry Hathaway

Writers:

Jerome Cady (screen play), Jay Dratler (screen play)

Stars:

James Stewart, Richard Conte, Lee J. Cobb

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited 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 (as Joanne de Bergh)
Howard Smith	...	K.L. Palmer
Moroni Olsen	...	Parole Board Chairman
John McIntire	...	Sam Faxon
Paul Harvey	...	Martin Burns

Storyline

In 1932, a cop is killed and Frank Wiecek sentenced to life. Eleven years later, a newspaper ad by Frank's mother leads Chicago reporter P.J. McNeal to look into the case. For some time, McNeal continues to believe Frank guilty. But when he starts to change his mind, he meets increased resistance from authorities unwilling to be proved wrong.

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Plot Keywords:

police call box | call box | baking | card game | chicago stockyard | 

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Taglines:

Reporter Uncovers New Clues In Wiecek Case

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Genres:

Drama | Film-Noir

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Polish

Release Date:

March 1948 (USA)

Also Known As:

Calling Northside 777

Filming Locations:

Schaller's Pump - 3714 South Halsted Street, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The beer McNeal is drinking when he comes home, is Nectar Premium Beer of Chicago, which is no longer in business.

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Goofs

Various characters refer to the murdered police officer as John W. Bundy, but the police record of the case shows his name as W.W. Bundy.

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Quotes

P.J. McNeal: [to warden, after trying to talk Tomek into confessing to get parole] You must run a nice jail; this guy doesn't want to get out either.

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Connections

Featured in AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to James Stewart (1980)

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Soundtracks

Chicago (That Toddlin' Town)
(1922) (uncredited)
Music by Fred Fisher
Played during the Prohibition montage

User Reviews

Nailing Down the Facts

Call Northside 777 has James Stewart patiently trying to nail down enough facts to get Richard Conte a pardon from a murder for which he was falsely convicted. The tale is told in the documentary style that Henry Hathaway developed post World War II and that Darryl F. Zanuck used in several 20th Century Fox films.

On orders from editor Lee J. Cobb, Stewart checks out the source behind a small personal advertisement in the Chicago Sun-Times where he works. The ad is placed by Richard Conte's mother who works as a cleaning woman and saved enough money to offer a reward of $5000.00 for information clearing her son.

Back during the last days of Prohibition, Conte and another man were sent up for killing a Chicago policeman in a grocery store that fronted for a speakeasy. Conte was convicted mainly on the eyewitness testimony of the owner of the establishment Betty Garde.

Stewart gradually comes to believe in Conte's innocence and works tirelessly on his behalf. The best single performance in this film is by Betty Garde. A real portrait in evil that one is.

This has always been a film I've had an identity with. I had a similar situation in my former job with NYS Crime Victims Board. I had a case where a man sustained multiple injuries including the loss of a leg when a car drove up on a sidewalk and hit him. The report was never written up as any kind of crime, just an accident. The driver was given a summons and that was that.

I did a lot of work to prove the police were wrong in their action and it took two years, but I gathered enough evidence and my claimant was declared a crime victim and received the benefits from my former agency. The perpetrator was never charged with anything, but that was not in my mandate. Nevertheless I know exactly what Jimmy Stewart had to prove and how hard it is. The police even more than most of us do not like to admit they are wrong.

Call Northside 777 is a nicely done documentary style feature which is a great lesson in what a man with determination can accomplish.