Henry Hathaway's Call Northside 777 feels like an odd middle stage between the early film noir shot mostly on studio sound stages and the middle era film noir shot mostly on location in cities and suburbia. Based on a real-life court-case about a man wrongfully arrested and imprisoned for eleven years for the murder of a police officer, Call Northside 777 sometimes feels like the dying embers of Expressionism. I was particularly interested in its depiction of a culture of corrupt cops more than willing to imprison possibly innocent people in the name of vengeance for the murder of one of their own. In this sense, it seems eerily timely considering the rise of the Black Lives Matter Movement. I kind of wish that this sub-plot had extended beyond the second act. But unfortunately it is largely dropped for a rather tedious third act where we watch the characters repeat investigative information we largely already know. The ending where the exonerated man reunites with his family also seems bizarrely anti-climactic. Maybe some music would have helped?
7/10
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