Classic L.A. noir police procedural that’s as stark as the moon and just seventy-eight minutes long. Shifty thief Richard Basehart guns down a uniformed beat cop one night and it’s up to the LAPD to catch him. The characters here are just barely sketched out, which is the point. This is about method. It’s guys in fedoras doing a job and puffing cigarettes. See the police question witnesses, canvass scenes, and pore over files. See the crook’s evasion tactics, such as disguising himself differently for every job and using the city storm drain system as his escape trail.
Alfred L. Werker gets sole directing credit, but Anthony Mann took over in the middle of the shoot and the film fits perfectly next to the tough little noirs that Mann was banging out at the time. Along for the ride is cinematographer John Alton who dips every scene in a bucket of shadows.
Jack Webb has a small part as the police department’s science guy and it was on this film that he got the idea for Dragnet.