Call Northside 777 (1948)

Why so much hype?

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

"P. J. McNeal" (James Stewart) is a reporter for a Chicago newspaper who gets handed an assignment to look into a strange add that offers $5000 for information pertaining to a criminal case that was closed 11 years ago. During his investigation P. J. McNeal learns that a young man named "Frank W. Wiecek" (Richard Conte) was convicted of murdering a police officer and sentenced to 99 years in prison and his mother has worked day and night since then to raise the money by scrubbing floors. After gathering some necessary information P. J. McNeal writes a fairly interesting article which receives enough attention to warrant a follow-up piece. Although he doesn't consider Frank Wiecek innocent at first, as P. J. McNeal continues to investigate he finds that his doubts are beginning to grow and this inspires him to dig even deeper. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this turned out to be a pretty good detective-style movie made even more enjoyable by the historical era and location in which it was filmed. It gave a priceless look at Chicago back in the 30's and 40's which history buffs may find quite fascinating. Likewise, the movie itself managed to keep my interest from start to finish as well. In any case, all things considered I rate this movie as above average.

Henry Hathaway directed this film based on a true story about a wrongfully imprisoned man(played by Richard Conte) who was convicted of murdering a policeman in 1932. Eleven years later, his devoted and hard-working mother earned enough money to place a newspaper ad offering a reward to prove her son's innocence. This gets the attention of a big city newspaper editor(played by Lee. J. Cobb) who assigns reporter P.J. McNeal(played by James Stewart) to investigate. Though skeptical, he accepts the assignment, and is surprised to discover himself being convinced of his innocence, and becomes determined to have his conviction overturned. Fine docudrama-like film with solid performances, direction, and compelling story.

Released in 1948 - This intense, well-scripted Crime/Drama, starring James Stewart and Richard Conte, was greatly enhanced by excellent location shooting in and around Chicago.Apparently based on actual events, this b&w gem from the glorious 40s was partially shot in a semi-documentary format.Call Northside 777 tells the in-depth tale of hard-nosed news-reporter, P.J. McNeal, at the Chicago Times, who eventually proves that a man who was sentenced to life in prison for shooting down a police officer 11 years earlier was wrongly convicted.As the evidence of this man's innocence begins to slowly take shape, McNeal's skepticism soon turns around as he finds himself going well out of his way in search for justice for this man.This first-rate motion picture was directed by Henry Hathaway whose other notable films include - The Dark Corner, Niagara, and True Grit.

So says one of the observers on random wrongful conviction victim Frank Wiecek in this docudrama (= based on a true AND representative story of the American Way). CALL NORTHSIDE 777 is refreshing for its post-WWII naivete in which inhabitants mistook America for a Democracy (one man, one vote) as opposed to the corporate conglomerate it actually is (one dollar, one vote, codified into law explicitly with the recent CITIZENS vs. UNITED U.S. Supreme Court decision). Why someone as smart as George Bailey (or Chicago TIMES reporter Jim McNeal here) would not know this is beyond me. For 150 years, U.S. law enforcement has had two prime directives: protect rich people's property, and protect itself. Any other goal comes in a distant third at best. When anyone breaches raisons d'etre #1 OR #2, a random poor person can be easily incarcerated and\or fried if the real culprit is not conveniently available or appropriate to convict, as is the case with this story's police patsy, Frank Wiecek (and his inexplicably lost-at-the-end co-defendant, Tomek Zaleska) in this film. Released after 11 years of political imprisonment with just $10, crusading Chicago TIMES reporter Jimmy Stewart tells Frank he's lucky he's been given 91 cents for each of his 11 years at hard labor. So what if Frank lost his youth and his wife, and not even O.J. is looking for Officer Bundy's "real killer" in this case (the late police Captain Norris?). In one of Wikipedia's articles on world justice, it's noted that the percentage of inmates and executed people in the U.S. who were below the poverty line as free civilians is 71%, 20 points higher than any ACTUAL world Democracy (= one man, one vote). Though the Tea Party labels poor people as Satan's spawn, CALL NORTHSIDE 777 proves they're the salt of the earth, as Jesus said, as well as easy pickings when the criminal U.S. justice system needs a scapegoat.