Birthday Special - He Walked by Night (1948)

 

Streaming on Amazon Prime and Pluto 

Rent on Amazon and Apple TV

Birthday Special Reviews continue! 

In my last review special, I tackled the ridiculous 80s action schlock fest, Warriors of the Wasteland, A mindless and mostly incompetent mess that tried and failed to skate by its lackluster budget with too much charisma and not enough texture. And yet, despite all that, it at least had some ironic entertainment value with its dumb dialogue and toy cars. At the very least, there was enough to keep me engaged, if only for the wrong reasons. 

Today's subject, He Walked by Night, a film noir crime thriller from 1948, doesn't have the same luxury. While I recognize that it's a product of its time, that still does not excuse the film for being as dull, predictable, cliche, and paint-by-numbers as it is. Sure, it barely skates by with some technical competence (proper lighting, mostly judicious editing, proper pacing, etc.). Still, without a proper emotional core for the audience to grasp, then it's all for not. Film noir may be a cold genre, but at least there's usually some heart within it! 

The story presents itself as a hybrid documentary/police procedural drama following the efforts to take down a suspected cop killer in Los Angeles. In between segments of narrated montages with infomercial levels of staged enthusiasm, we follow the "factual" events of the police's efforts to track down and bring in (or take down) their suspect. There's some cat & mouse, standard investigation efforts, and at least one big chase scene. 

If I sound somewhat apathetic towards this film, it's because it was too challenging not to fall asleep while watching it. Again, I understand that it was a product of its time, and the standards & styles for narrative filmmaking have evolved a lot since then, but I'm sorry, this movie is simply boring. 

The main issue with the film is that it seems to have no central emotionally resonating or relatable core, no in-universe reason for the audience to care about anything happening in the film. To be fair, there appears to be an attempt to build emotional resonance with one of the detectives proclaiming his close friendship with the victim. Still, we have never seen the two characters interact with one another in any meaningful way, nor do we see the victim do anything remotely relatable (thereby earning our empathy and interest) before his untimely demise. Instead, the narrator tells us who they are and what they do and merely assumes we will fill in the emotional void. 

The movie gives no sound reason to care about anything happening within the narrative, insisting that we should root for them purely because they are policemen. While I have a fair amount of respect and appreciation for the police (the good ones, anyway), no film from any era should expect to skate by demanding that we, the audience, care about a character by their occupation alone, nor can we be expected to accept aspects of characters or narrative depths simply because the narrator tells us of its existence. 

He Walked by Night is the equivalent of walking into a bakery and asking for a Chocolate Cake, only for the baker to hand you a bowl containing the ingredients and insist you can make it yourself. And on top of that, you don't have an oven! It's a film that tried to get away with less than the bare minimum of what would be acceptable as a story and refuses to provide anymore. 

    There are many other & far superior film noir classics to watch. Skip this one! 

Ladies & gentlemen, I am TheNorm; thank you all for reading.