Password 777

Movie
German title	Password 777
Original title	Call Northside 777
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1948
length	112 minutes
Age rating	FSK 0
Rod
Director	Henry Hathaway
script	Jerome Cady , Jay Dratler , Leonard Hoffman , Quentin Reynolds
production	Otto Lang
music	Alfred Newman
camera	Joseph MacDonald
cut	J. Watson Webb Jr.
occupation
James Stewart : PJ 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 Howard Smith : KL Palmer Moroni Olsen : Chairman of the Parole Board John McIntire : Sam Faxon JM Kerrigan : Sullivan Paul Harvey : Martin J. Burns George Tyne : Tomek Zaleska Leonarde Keeler : Lie detector man EG Marshall : Helen's new husband Michael Chapin : Frank Wiecek Jr. Thelma Ritter : Receptionist Lionel Stander : Wiecek's cellmate Samuel S. Hinds : Judge Moulton

Call Northside 777 (original title: Call Northside 777 ) is in black and white twisted film noir by Henry Hathaway from the year 1948 . The film is a leading exponent of the "semi-documentary" style that was popular at the time it was made. The film relies on an authentic case and was shot on the original locations. The hero of the film is an average citizen who wants to help law and justice to victory.

action

In Chicago during the Prohibitons era , Frank Wiecek and Tomek Zaleska are sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a patrol officer in which they say they are completely uninvolved. Eleven years later, Brian Kelly, editor-in-chief of the Chicago Times , becomes aware of an unusual ad that promises a $ 5,000 reward for information about the long-ago murder case. Kelly gets his top reporter, PJ McNeal, to call Northside 777 on the ad . McNeal quickly finds out that the client of the ad is Frank Wiecek's mother Tillie. She has saved the $ 5,000 in the past eleven years as a cleaning lady in order to be able to reopen her son's case.

The naturally skeptical McNeal actually wants to leave the matter alone, but is instructed by Kelly to pursue it further. Reluctantly, he visits Frank Wiecek in prison and questions him. At first he remains suspicious, but finally begins to believe in Wiecek's innocence. During his research, he learns that Wiecek and Zaleska were convicted on the basis of a single dubious testimony. McNeal goes in search of this now-missing witness named Wanda Skutnik. When he finally finds her after a long search, she refuses to withdraw her statement. However, McNeal has in the meantime got his hands on a photo with which he can prove to the pardon committee that Skutnik's statement was false. Frank Wiecek is then released from prison.

background

The film opened in US cinemas on February 18, 1948. It was released in Germany in September 1949.

Leonarde Keeler (1903–1949), who is considered one of the inventors of the lie detector , plays himself as a lie detector expert in one scene of the film.

In contrast to the German film title, “777” is not a password in the film , but part of a telephone number.

criticism

"The detective film, staged very grippingly with semi-documentary stylistic devices, refers to an actual incident."

- Lexicon of international film

Web links

• Call Northside 777 in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Release certificate for password 777 . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , April 2006 (PDF; test number: 105 880 DVD).
2. ↑ Call northside 777 In: Dieter Krusche (Ed.): Reclams Filmführer. 13th, revised edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-15-010676-1 , p. 132.
3. ↑ Alain Silver, Elizabeth Ward (Ed.): Film Noir. An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style, Third Edition. Overlook / Duckworth, New York / Woodstock / London 1992, ISBN 978-0-87951-479-2 , pp. 49-50.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Keyword 777 in the Lexicon of International Films .