Call Northside 777

8/28/2014

This is a true story. When a patrol cop is shot and killed, small time crook Frank Wiecek is tried for the crime and promptly sentenced to life imprisonment. Some 11 years on, tough cookie reporter P.J. McNeal gets involved with the case, the further he delves, the more he believes that Wiecek is innocent, but can he find evidence to back up his belief? Filmed in semi-documentary style by director Henry Hathaway, this James Stewart led noir thriller oozes realism from start to finish. It's actually the lack of gloss and glamour that is the film's trump card. Based on the real story of the Joe Majczek case in 1933, it's filmed perfectly on location in Chicago {where the actual events happened}, gloriously mood emphasised by Joe MacDonald's superb black & white cinematography, and scor

7/9/2022

James Stewart and Lee J. Cobb are both on top form in this crime thriller. The latter, the boss who sends the former, one of his better reporters, to investigate the case of convicted murderer "Frank Wiecek" (Richard Conte) after his mother puts an ad in a newspaper offering $5000 for information that might cast doubt on the voracity of the verdict. Initially sceptical, "McNeal", soon begins to suspect that perhaps the conviction - based solely on the testament of a long lost witness "Wanda Skutnik" - might be flawed. Now, he has to deal with understandable hostility from the Chicago PD as well as manage the hopeful optimism of the man's mother as his search involves some risk to himself, the gut instinct innate to a good journalist and the innovative use of state of the art technology (fo