Call Northside 777

1948
A
1h 52m

IMDb RATING

7.4/10

11K

YOUR RATING

James Stewart, Richard Conte, and Joanne De Bergh in Call Northside 777 (1948)

Trailer for this thriller starring James Stewart

Play trailer1:53

1 Video

18 Photos

Docudrama Film Noir Drama

Chicago reporter P.J. McNeal re-opens a decade-old murder case.Chicago reporter P.J. McNeal re-opens a decade-old murder case.Chicago reporter P.J. McNeal re-opens a decade-old murder case.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.4/10

11K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 4 wins & 2 nominations total

Top cast74

Edit

James Stewart

P.J. McNeal

Richard Conte

Frank Wiecek

Lee J. Cobb

Brian Kelly

Helen Walker

Laura McNeal

Betty Garde

Wanda Skutnik

Kasia Orzazewski

Tillie Wiecek

Joanne De Bergh

Helen Wiecek
(as Joanne de Bergh)

Howard Smith

K.L. Palmer

Moroni Olsen

Parole Board Chairman

John McIntire

Sam Faxon

Paul Harvey

Martin Burns

Robert Adler

Taxicab Driver
(uncredited)

Richard Bishop

Warden of Stateville Prison
(uncredited)

Larry J. Blake

Police Photographic Technician
(uncredited)

John Bleifer

Jan Gruska
(uncredited)

Truman Bradley

Narrator
(voice)
(uncredited)

Dollie Caillet

Secretary
(uncredited)

Al Capone

Capone
(archive footage)
(uncredited)

‘Snow White’ Stars Test Their Wits

Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, and director Marc Webb take our Ultimate Disney Quiz.

Watch now

9:57

More like this

6.7

7.1

7.4

7.0

7.1

No Highway in the Sky

7.1

Tomorrow Is Another Day

7.5

7.2

7.3

6.7

6.0

7.1

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
The man administering the polygraph test to convict Richard Conte was the inventor of the polygraph or lie detector machine, Leonarde Keeler. He played himself in the movie.

Goofs
When McNeal is interviewing Helen Wiecek Rayska, prior to the arrival home of Mr. Rayska, Helen indicates that she only divorced Frank Wiecek AFTER Mr. Rayska had met and began loving her and her son, Frank Jr. However, when Mr. Rayska and Frank Jr. arrive home after that point in the interview, Mr. Rayska tells McNeal with certainty that he never even met Helen and Frank Jr. until after the divorce was finalized, and that he could provide proof of that.

Frank's ex-wife says that Frank asked her to divorce him for over a year. In the next sentence she says then she met her new husband which can be interpreted as after she finally acted and got the divorce. Her story and her new husband's agree.

Quotes
[McNeal is trying to get Zaleska to name his real partner in the crime and get a chance at parole]
P.J. McNeal: What have you got to lose? You're in for life now. C'mon, tell us the truth.
Tomek Zaleska: Sure, I could say I did it. Then maybe have a chance of getting out, like you say. But if I confessed, who would I name as my partner, Joe Doakes? I couldn't make it stick for one minute. That's the trouble with being innocent. You don't know what really happened. I didn't do it. Me and Frank had nothin' to do with it.

Crazy credits
Opening credits are printed on the pages of a book; it is also stated that this is a true story.

Connections
Edited from In Old Chicago (1938)

Soundtracks
Chicago (That Toddlin' Town)
(1922) (uncredited)
Music by Fred Fisher
Played during the Prohibition montage

Reliable Jimmy Stewart fighting for a cause

Call Northside 777 is a genuinely engaging film. It has reliable James Stewart as an investigative reporter on a story about an alleged cop killer in prison. At first he believes that the prisoner is guilty but then becomes convinced otherwise and is willing to risk his professional reputation on clearing him. The pace of the film is told like a gritty docudrama with no dramatic musical underscore for effect. But more importantly, this film is interesting to watch for a time capsule of post WWII Chicago. The Chicago Times, the police precincts, the ethnic neighborhoods that existed then and a whole sequence of a wireless photo copier. This is generations before the fax machine was ever conceived. This film is important as Stewart was beginning his maturing film roles in the postwar period and taking on good narrative stories and less goodguy next door roles which were going out of fashion.