Call Northside 777
Theatrical release poster
Directed byHenry Hathaway
Screenplay byJerome Cady
Jay Dratler
Leonard Hoffman (adaptation)
Quentin Reynolds (adaptation)
Based on1944 Chicago Daily Times articles
by James P. McGuire
Jack McPhaul -- writer
Produced byOtto Lang
StarringJames Stewart
Richard Conte
Lee J. Cobb
Helen Walker
Narrated byTruman Bradley
CinematographyJoseph MacDonald
Edited byJ. Watson Webb Jr.
Music byAlfred Newman
Distributed by20th Century-Fox
Release date
  • February 1948 (1948-02)
Running time
111 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$2.7 million (US rentals)[1]

Call Northside 777 is a 1948 reality-based newspaper American drama film directed by Henry Hathaway. The film parallels the true story of a Chicago reporter who proved that a man jailed for murder was wrongly convicted 11 years before. James Stewart stars as the persistent journalist and Richard Conte plays the imprisoned Frank Wiecek. Wiecek is based on Joseph Majczek, who was wrongly convicted of the murder of a Chicago policeman in 1932, one of the worst years of organized crime during Prohibition.

Plot

In Chicago in 1932, during Prohibition, a policeman is murdered inside a speakeasy. Frank Wiecek (Richard Conte) and another man are quickly arrested, and in November 1933 are convicted and sentenced to serve 99 years imprisonment each for the killing.

Eleven years later, Wiecek's mother (Kasia Orzazewski) puts a classified ad in the Chicago Times, offering a $5,000 reward for information about the true killers of the police officer. This leads the paper's city editor, Brian Kelly (Lee J. Cobb), to assign reporter P.J. McNeal (James Stewart) to look more closely into the case. McNeal is skeptical at first, believing Wiecek to be guilty. But he starts to change his mind, and meets increased resistance from the police and the state's attorney's office, who are unwilling to be proved wrong. This is quickly followed by political pressure from the state capital, where politicians are anxious to end a story that might prove embarrassing to the administration.

Eventually, Wiecek is proved innocent by, among other things, the enlarging of a photograph showing the date on a newspaper that proves that a key witness statement was false. (In actuality, innocence was determined not as claimed in the film but when it was found out that the prosecution had suppressed the fact that the main witness had initially declared that she could not identify the two men involved in the police shooting.[2])

Cast

Production

James Stewart in Call Northside 777 (1948)

It was reported on January 24, 1947, that, according to the studio, the picture would be filmed in the documentary manner. Fox had obtained the necessary legal clearances from the persons involved in the story and had dispatched Otto Lang, producer, and Leonard Hoffman, writer, to Chicago to gather material for the film. Eventually, Quentin Reynolds and Jay Dratler joined Hoffman in writing the script.

Casting the film proved complex. According to a March 7 report in The New York Times, Twentieth Century-Fox had named Henry Fonda to play the newspaper reporter in Call Northside 777, which would precede Chicken Every Sunday and Lone Star Preacher on Fonda's schedule. However, after a month, another report pointed out that Fox had named Fonda for a leading role in the screen adaptation of Elizabeth Janeway's novel, Daisy Kenyon, which necessitated Fonda's replacement in Call Northside 777. Two months later, another report said that Twentieth Century-Fox was "negotiating for the services of James Stewart for the leading role in Call Northside 777." Lloyd Nolan was originally named to play the role of Brian Kelly, but Lee J. Cobb replaced him in the end. Leopoldine Konstantin was originally scheduled to play the wrongly convicted man's mother, but in the end the role went to Kasia Orzazewski.

This was the first Hollywood feature film to be shot on location in Chicago. Views of the Merchandise Mart as well as Holy Trinity Polish Mission can be seen throughout the film. A scene filmed at the Stateville Penitentiary shows the interior of the so-called "Roundhouse," a "panopticon" cell block built according to a design originated by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham.[3]

Release

The film opened at the New Theatre in Baltimore in the week ending 18 February 1948 and opened at the Roxy theatre in New York City on 18 February.[4]

Reception

Critical response

The film received mostly positive reviews when it was first released, and again when it was released on DVD in 2004. In 2004, the Onion AV Club Review argued that the film may not be a true film noir, but is good nonetheless: "Outstanding location shooting and Stewart's driven performance turn a sober film into a vibrant, exciting one, even though the hero and the jailbird he champions are really too noble for noir."[5] The website DVD Verdict made the case that the lead actor may be the best reason to see the film: "Its value exists mainly in Stewart's finely drawn characterization of a cynical man with a nagging conscience."[6]

"By far the best documentary-style movie yet... Hands down the most expert, informative, gripping, and develops the most substantial audience rooting interest of them all"---AGER, PM.

"Calls for three cheers from every working newspaper man and, for that matter, for at least two from every moviegoer."---CREELMAN N.Y Sun

Box office

Call Northside 777 reached number one at the US box office in its third week of release with a gross of $500,000 from 17 cities.[7]

Awards

Wins

Nominations

  • Writers Guild of America: WGA Award; Best Written American Drama, Jerome Cady and Jay Dratler; The Robert Meltzer Award (Screenplay Dealing Most Ably with Problems of the American Scene), Jerome Cady and Jay Dratler; 1949.

Marketing

Call Northside 777 was advertised by the Valerie Theatre in Inverness, Florida. The manager picked out random numbers from the phone book. If the party called answered by saying "Are you calling Northside 777," free tickets to see the show were given.

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

Adaptations

For an episode of CBS Radio's Hollywood Sound Stage, broadcast December 27, 1951, Harry Kronman adapted and directed a condensed 30-minute version of the film, casting Dana Andrews and Thomas Gomez in the leads. Tony Barrett, Bob Sweeney, Betty Lou Gerson, and Frank Nelson played supporting roles.

The April 17, 1951, audition episode of the radio program Defense Attorney (then titled Defense Rests) starring Mercedes McCambridge was based on the same plot, with some modifications.

Indian Hindi film Post Box 999 (1958) directed by Ravindra Dave was inspired by this film.[9]

References

  1. ↑ "Top Grossers of 1948", Variety 5 January 1949 p 46
  2. ↑ "J. Majczek; wrongfully imprisoned," Chicago Tribune obituary, June 1, 1983, p. B4.
  3. ↑ Fiddler, Michael (2022). "Phantom architecture: Jeremy Bentham's haunted and haunting panopticon". Incarceration. 3 (2). doi:10.1177/26326663221101571.
  4. ↑ "National Boxoffice Survey". Variety. February 18, 1948. p. 3. Retrieved December 29, 2023 – via Archive.org.
  5. ↑ Murray, Noel Archived 2007-03-11 at the Wayback Machine. Onion AV Club Review, film review, March 29, 2005. Accessed: April 5, 2008.
  6. ↑ DVD Verdict Archived 2006-02-08 at the Wayback Machine. Film review, 2005. Accessed: April 5, 2008.
  7. ↑ "National Boxoffice Survey". Variety. March 3, 1948. p. 3. Retrieved December 29, 2023 – via Archive.org.
  8. ↑ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills Nominees" (PDF). Retrieved August 20, 2016.
  9. ↑ Dave, Hiren B. (April 16, 2019). "Tribute: Director Ravindra Dave, who was 'Ravinbhai' in Hindi films and 'Bapa' for Gujarati cinema". Scroll.in. Retrieved May 10, 2019.
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