Henry Hathaway helped launch the noir cycle of films in 1945 with his newsreel-inspired House on 92nd Street; like that film, Call Northside 777 is based on a true incident. Jimmy Stewart is well cast as a reporter trying to prove the innocence of a convicted cop-killer serving a life sentence. Following his search for key witnesses through the cheap bars and tenements of Chicago's underbelly, Hathaway and cinematographer Joseph MacDonald create an effectively morbid atmosphere for the reporter's enlightening encounter with his most formidable adversary, the police. Mystery gives way to melodrama as Stewart makes his familiar plea for justice and the American way, but there is no Frank Capra around to provide it; like the good film noir that it is, Call Northside 777 leaves you feeling a little worse about everything.