MY DVD Collection - 09 Feb 2007

(Schritte in der Nacht [de])

USA 1948
d: Alfred L. Werker
Roan Group (Region 1 us)

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Minor but taut thriller in the semi-documentary vein so popular in the second half of the '40s, about detectives tracking down thief-turned-cop killer Basehart (and making much play with the new Identikit methods). The fact that Anthony Mann had an uncredited hand in the direction may have something to do with the successful creation of a tense atmosphere, although most notable is the superb noir photography by John Alton, who really comes into his own during the final chase through the LA sewers. Basehart is excellent as the strange, lone wolf electronics expert/killer, an enigmatic threat haunting the paranoid dreams of the witch-hunting era.
— GA, Time Out Film Guide
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Visual style is at its peak in "He Walked By Night". Many of the scenes have rectangles in their backgrounds, produced by door frames, windows, maps or wall regions. These are turned into trapezoids by being shot at off angles. They make very complex compositions. The screen tends to be shot with deep focus. Often the far back region of the screen is brilliantly lit, while most of the foreground is in shadow: for example, we are in a dimly lit room, and in the background a trapezoidal door opens on another room, in which someone turns on a very bright light. One saw similar effects in "T-Men", but here it is done more systematically throughout the entire film. There are also many purely geometric objects that are integrated with the compositions - an octagonal clock, or a round mirror. There is usually only one such object in the shot at any one time. It is prominently displayed, and its round or rounded contour forms a complex balance with all of the rectangle based trapezoids that form most of the composition. The object tends to be the focus of the shot. One feels that the large trapezoids are converging on one point or region, as at a focus, and the rounded object is at the center of that focus, and gives a point to the rest of the composition. ...
The shots at the end of are terrific. They are among the most purely geometric of any shots in a fiction feature film. The tunnels are full of circles, trapezoids, and other pure geometric shapes. The lighting effects are also remarkable. Mann and Alton show a series of shots, exploring many different effects that can be produced by flashlights moving along walls, often held by men who are themselves running or walking. These climax in a tracking shot, one of the few in the entire film. This shot combines the motion of the light and the men with the motion of the camera. This tracking shot is very different in effect from most tracking shots in most films. The tracking is not part of a "camera eye", a visual point of view that is moving through a scene, exploring it in detail, and creating awesome visual patterns as it goes: this is the typical tracking shot of the great directors. Instead, the tracking here is closely integrated with the other visual effects of the scene. It is part of one, integrated visual pattern being created in the shot. This unified effect is built up out of all components, in which tracking, lighting and geometry of the sets all play an equal role.