The Cinematheque

Anthony Mann was the uncredited co-director of this influential noir thriller, a brisk B‑movie made in the semi-documentary, police-procedural style, but also spotlighting the eye-popping Expressionist cinematography of noted noir cameraman John Alton (The Big Combo, T‑Men). Produced by Poverty Row studio Eagle-Lion Films, and loosely based on ​“Machine Gun” Walker’s L.A. crime spree of the mid-1940s, the movie has Richard Baseheart as a cop-killer cunningly adept at avoiding capture. A parallel narrative chronicles the methodical efforts of the police team tasked with hunting him down. Jack Webb, in his first credited screen role, plays a forensic technician; the film was an inspiration for Webb’s long-running Dragnet franchise. The striking subterranean finale was shot in L.A.’s storm sewers.

Preservation funded by the George Lucas Family Foundation and The Film Foundation.