John Alton (1) (1901–1996)

This is an effective noir film set in late 1940s Los Angeles. It starts out documentary style with a voiceover about LA--just like Dragnet, but settles down into a much more serious police procedural. (Dragnet's Jack Webb, by the way, plays a key role here as the LA Police Department's lab specialist, who not only can do ballistics but also Identikit! Webb apparently got the idea for Dragnet here.) The film looks great all the way through, and the scenes in the storm drains will remind you show more of the Third Man, but He Walked by Night was filmed a year earlier. The film is made most interesting by its alternation between scenes of the killer, well played by Richard Basehart, and the police investigation. Of course, the LA police department, make up entirely on white guys in dark suits, comes off as completely competent and uncorrupt. This is based on a true story, by the way. I guess I have given it only 3 1/2 stars for the simple reason that the killer's motives are never revealed or even hinted at. Which I guess is why it was so hard to track him down! I watched this movie on Kanopy through my library, so it should be easily available to anyone who wants to journey back 70 years. Recommended. show less

Great cast can't make up for stupid script. O'Keefe escapes from prison--but wait a minute, we see Trevor visiting him at prison and it looks like a large campus, but when he escapes, she is able to park the car just a few feet from where he drops to the ground with guards shooting at him--it looks like a different place altogether! In any case, the manhunt is on, but the police (of several states, perhaps) are not too clever. Bad girl Trevor has to deal with good girl Hunt (the best part of show more the film) who wants to save O'Keefe from his life of crime. Except we're to understand that he was framed, but he's pretty hard-boiled nevertheless. Of course, it's all the nefarious plot of the evil Raymond Burr. What a relief it must have been for him to play Perry Mason after portraying a series of pretty interchangeable villains who don't get many good lines. Nice location shooting in any case. If only I had a time machine. show less

Few cinematographers have had as decisive an impact on the cinematic medium as John Alton. Best known for his highly stylized film noir classics T-Men, He Walked by Night, and The Big Combo, Alton earned a reputation during the 1940s and 1950s as one of Hollywood's consummate craftsmen through his visual signature of crisp shadows and sculpted beams of light. No less renowned for his virtuoso color cinematography and deft appropriation of widescreen and Technicolor, he earned an Academy show more Award in 1951 for his work on the musical An American in Paris. First published in 1949, Painting With Light remains one of the few truly canonical statements on the art of motion picture photography, an unrivaled historical document on the workings of postwar American cinema. In simple, non-technical language, Alton explains the job of the cinematographer and explores how lighting, camera techniques, and choice of locations determine the visual mood of film. Todd McCarthy's introduction provides an overview of Alton's biography and career and explores the influence of his work on contemporary cinematography and the foreword, written expressly for this edition by award-winning cinematographer John Bailey, explores Alton’s often contentious relationships with colleagues, the American Society of Cinematographers, and the movie industry itself. show less