He Walked by Night, as shown on TCM, Noir Alley with Eddie Muller - it's...

He Walked by Night, as shown on TCM, Noir Alley with Eddie Muller - it's a Cop 'n Caper, Film Noir.

Notes by Bill Russo Starring Richard Basehart and Scott Brady, with an appearance by Jack Webb, you could say that this 1948 Noir film is the "Daddy" of the long running Radio and TV program, Dragnet. While the film was in production, Jack Webb became pals with the police technical advisor, Sgt. Marty Wynn. Based on his talks with the Detective Sergeant, Webb developed "Dragnet" and brought it to network radio in 1949. It ran on NBC radio until the end of dramatic radio in 1957. Two years after its radio debut, Webb took the show to TV where it lasted in one form or another until 1970. The plot of 'He Walked by Night" unfolds as a semi-documentary based on newspaper accounts of the real-life Ervin 'Machine-Gun' Walker. He was a one-time police department employee and W. W. Two vet who ran amuck while blasting through a string of stick-ups, burglaries, heists and shootouts in L A between 1945 and 1946.