Follow Me Quietly (1949)

An obsessed cop tracks an elusive serial killer who strangles his victims on rainy nights.

Director:

Richard Fleischer (as Richard O. Fleischer)

Writers:

Lillie Hayward (screenplay), Francis Rosenwald (story)

Stars:

William Lundigan, Dorothy Patrick, Jeff Corey

Cast

Complete credited cast:
William Lundigan	...	Police Lt. Harry Grant
Dorothy Patrick	...	Ann Gorman
Jeff Corey	...	Police Sgt. Art Collins
Nestor Paiva	...	Benny
Charles D. Brown	...	Police Insp. Mulvaney
Paul Guilfoyle	...	Overbeck
Edwin Max	...	Charlie Roy aka The Judge
Frank Ferguson	...	J.C. McGill
Marlo Dwyer	...	Waitress
Archie Twitchell	...	Dixon (as Michael Branden)
Douglas Spencer	...	Phony Judge

Storyline

For six months, a strangler has terrorized the city. Calling himself The Judge, he's a self-appointed destroyer of 'evil' who only strikes on rainy nights. Police Lieut. Harry Grant is obsessed with catching him but has failed so far, despite varied clues. And now Harry is further hampered by attractive tabloid reporter Ann Gorman dogging his footsteps. Compactly crafted film with some effective thrills.

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Plot Keywords:

bare chested male | reference to jack the ripper | reference to bluebeard | police partner | police procedural | 

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Taglines:

Police baffled by the FACELESS KILLER!

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Mystery

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 July 1949 (USA)

Also Known As:

L'assassin sans visage

Filming Locations:

RKO Studios - 780 N. Gower Street, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

RKO Radio Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Filmed in only sixteen days.

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Goofs

When Harry and Ann are driving in the rain to the homicide call on Maple Avenue, they take an "S" curve through the city. In that shot, there is a large lighted sign for "Mid-City Garage" that is obviously reversed, indicating, for at least that one short shot, the film had been flipped.

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Quotes

Police Lt. Harry Grant: Funny thing how he always strikes in the rain.
Police Sgt. Art Collins: Maybe he likes rain. Must be a fish.

User Reviews

A Three Dimensional Mugshot

Follow Me Quietly casts William Lundigan in a B picture police drama out of RKO as a detective assigned to what we now would be calling a serial killer. A man who strangles his victims and then leaves cut out notes at the crime scenes saying he killed these individuals in some kind of retribution and signs himself the Judge.

When watching Follow Me Quietly it reminded me of the Agatha Christie story Ten Little Indians which has been filmed a few times and where the perpetrator is in fact a terminally ill judge gathering victims on an island and killing them one by one for crimes he feels that the normal justice system hasn't dealt with.

Which is the main problem with Follow Me Quietly, we are never given an answer as to how the Judge's victims are selected. All we do know is that rain somehow sets his psychosis off.

In one respect the film is quite modern. One of the tools that Lundigan and partner Jeff Corey use is to reconstruct a faceless dummy of the approximate height and weight of the Judge using whatever forensic clues have been found at crime scenes. This is years ahead of when that kind of forensic tool was used, it's like a three dimensional mugshot and it helps in bringing the judge down.

A little more work on the story and Follow Me Quietly could have been a classic noir.