Call Northside 777

Call Northside 777 is a 1948 film noir production directed by Henry Hathaway, a veteran of silent movies who successfully transitioned to sound productions. Filmed in semi-documentary style, the movie featured James Stewart as a Chicago Times reporter named P. J. McNeal (based on the real-life reporter James McGuire) and Lee J. Cobb as his editor, Brian Kelly (in real life Karin Walsh).

The story begins when the reporter happens on a classified advertisement offering a large reward for information proving the innocence of a convicted murderer. Intrigued, McNeal discovers the ad was placed by a poor woman named Tillie Wiecek who scrubbed floors for years to earn enough money to try to exonerate the convict, who turns out to be her son Frank. The son, played by Richard Conte, has been in prison for 11 years, along with accomplice Tomek Zaleska, played on screen by George Tyne, after being convicted of the murder of a policeman during a speakeasy robbery in 1932. What McNeal sees first as an interesting human interest story quickly turns into the reporter's quest to determine whether Frank is innocent, as he and his mother steadfastly maintain.

The first Hollywood feature movie to be filmed on location in Chicago, the production includes views of the Merchandise Mart, Holy Trinity Parish, and other recognizable Chicago landmarks that lend authenticity to the documentary style. Stewart's portrayal of the crusading reporter depicts an era when journalists were seen more as representatives of the common people seeking truth than as part of the corporate structure that newspapers have become today.

The case appears to rest on whether a witness who identified Wiecek in a police lineup had seen him before and been influenced by police to identify him as the perpetrator. The reporter is eventually able to locate a newspaper photograph of the two together and gets a photographer to enlarge the date it was taken, proving the witness had seen Wiecek before. Technology of the day also plays an important part, with an extended portion of the film devoted to explaining how a lie detector works. The results, along with the enhanced photograph, are sent to the hearing board over the new “wire photo system,” leading to the conviction being overturned.