I'm Looking for a Movie Title

[MacTheWolf (imported)]

This movie was made either in late 40's or early 50's. No known actors were in it. Entire movie takes place at night and is narrated all the way through.

It's about a robber who hits liquor stores, bars or small grocery stores. He is dressed completely in black including a face mask.

He makes his escape via various manholes in the street.

That's all I remember about it.

Any ideas would be appreciated

[Riverwind (imported)]

good luck, just not enough information, do you remember any actor or the city or anything more. Just not enough to go on yet.

River

[MacTheWolf (imported)]

Nope, I haven't seen it in 20+ years

[Riverwind (imported)]

Old movies is one of my hobbies, and I can't find anything on that, its just not enough to go on.

Sorry,

But I will give it another try,

River

[Riverwind (imported)]

I have looked at every film title from 1945 through 1955 and did not find it, most of them I had either seen or were big actors in them, so weeding them out it did not leave much to look at, on the ones that had a possible chance I read what they were about, none came even close.

Sorry,

River

[halfwaySD (imported)]

Try this:

He Walked at Night

Director: Alfred Werker and Anthony Mann

Producer: Bryan Foy and Robert Kane

Screenwriter: John C. Higgins and Crane Wilbur

Cinematographer: John C. Alton

Music: Leonid Raab

Studio: Eagle Lion 1948

Main Acting: Richard Basehart and Roy Roberts

[Riverwind (imported)]

I have looked at the reviews and it sure could be the one my friend looks for,

Thanks,

River

[MacTheWolf (imported)]

Try this:

He Walked at Night

Director: Alfred Werker and Anthony Mann

Producer: Bryan Foy and Robert Kane

Screenwriter: John C. Higgins and Crane Wilbur

Cinematographer: John C. Alton

Music: Leonid Raab

Studio: Eagle Lion 1948

Main Acting: Richard Basehart and Roy Roberts

Nope not that one but thanks for looking

[transward (imported)]

Nope not that one but thanks for looking

It does seem to have most of the elements you mentioned: http://books.google.com/books?id=tmCTmq ... &q&f=false

Martin confounds police procedure by changing what the narrator calls his "modus operandi," transforming himself from a burglar to a robber. In his new incarnation, Martin terrorizes the city with a series of daring liquor store robberies. The man's intimate knowledge of how the police work suggests that he is a rogue cop. His cunning duplicity revealed by police lab work (bullets fired from the cop killer's gun are shown to match one fired from the robber's), the killer is eventually, in a striking sequence, given a face by police artists, who assemble the robbery victims to construct a group portrait. The patient and time-consuming check of leads provides yet another breakthrough. Martin is identified by Brennan, who wearily troops from one area police station to another looking for a match to the composite sketch. Surrounded a second time, however, the resourceful Martin manages to escape the police cordon into his sewer hideout. There he can only be stopped by his own bad luck (the blocked manhole cover) and the heroic—but group—action of the police.

The unfortunate criminal is gunned down in a shootout reminiscent of the western and the classic gangster film (such as Public Enemy [William Wellman, 1931], High Sierra [Raoul Walsh, 1941], or White Heat [Walsh, 1949]). This climactic sequence provides Martin with a dramatic apotheosis, as his bullet-ridden body tumbles from a ladder into the sewage below; he suffers a literal fall from power and control. Significantly, there is no closing narration to fix the meaning of this event, no celebration of the successful pursuit of a dangerous felon. The law triumphs, but that victory is not documented; it is neither brought into the public realm to be adjudicated nor stylized as real. The surveilling and enforcement powers of the police may prove superior (if only barely) to Martin's monstrousness, but in the clash of representational traditions the expressionism of film noir, and not the naturalism of classic documentary, furnishes the film with its summa-tive image.

As does the noir semi-documentary more generally, He Walked by Night juxtaposes a city of light (populated by citizens going about their business and surveilled by the benevolent police) and a city of darkness (a criminal underworld that, metaphorized by the darkness and night that enfold it, does not easily admit the knowing, official gaze). Like the film's narrative and visual structure, the sound track is schizophrenic, split between the heavy, grim romantic theme that plays over Martin lurking in the shadows and the upbeat, almost military air that accompanies the work of the police, the grinding routine according to the book, which eventually identifies the criminal.

Transward