Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

He Walked by Night Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov February 18, 2024

Alfred L. Werker's "He Walked by Night" (1948) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include exclusive new audio commentary by critic Imogen Sara Smith and archival audio commentary by critics Alan K. Rode and Julie Kirgo. In English, with optional Enlgish SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Richard Basehart plays the most dangerous kind of criminal. He is a very intelligent, good-looking, very easy to like chameleon who makes people around him feel they have known him for years. It is why the same people believe everything that comes out of his mouth, too. He is exactly what a criminal is not supposed to be.

His playground is Los Angeles, a place that has expanded too quickly and attracted too many people to be kept safe by the local authorities. In such a place, a criminal could roam free for decades until it is time to quietly retire in style. He just needs to be patient and do many small jobs over a long period of time, rather than bet everything on a single big job that would push him over the finish line. It is the timeless secret of the successful criminal -- work slowly but safely.

But on a warm night, in a sleepy neighborhood where people know each other, Basehart’s criminal is spotted trying to break into an electronics store and forced to improvise. He kills the cop who approaches him and barely manages to get away, immediately becoming a target for the local authorities. The error, which should have been avoided, then alters his entire plan to safely reach the finish line.

In the days after the cop’s murder, Basehart’s criminal isolates himself in his tiny apartment and only occasionally visits a contact who has been helping him rent and sell his electronic equipment, not realizing that all of it is stolen. When eventually the local authorities gather enough information to assemble a credible profile of their target, Basehart’s criminal becomes a fugitive.

Directed by Alfred L. Werker, with small assistance by Anthony Mann, He Walked by Night enjoys the reputation of a classic film noir that was used as the blueprint for the popular radio series Dragnet, which inspired Jack Webb’s classic TV series and feature film. It is supposed to be reconstructing a true story, but while Basehart’s criminal appears to have been modeled after Erwin "Machine Gun" Walker, it is not a historically accurate film about the latter.

The historical value of He Walked by Night comes from something else, which is the main reason it will always be revisited and remembered. In its second half, after the local authorities discover the identity of Basehart’s criminal, He Walked by Night enters the massive sewage system of Los Angeles, effectively revealing a different underground city that the public had not seen on film. (A very large segment of the public probably did not even know that Los Angeles had such a massive sewage system). As Basehart’s criminal is hunted down, this tremendously spooky place then comes alive in a most unusual for the era way.

Basehart is excellent. However, He Walked by Night should have been a much longer film so that there is more material with the deranged animal his character becomes in the final act. In its current form, He Walked by Night rushes the transformation and shifts its focus from Basehart to the massive sewage system.

Another very good film noir that needs to be mentioned whenever He Walked by Night is discussed is The Sniper. Completed by Edward Dmytryk just a few years later, The Sniper introduces an equally dangerous chameleon in San Francisco, as well as plenty of similarly valuable period footage. San Francisco was a favorite destination for Don Siegel, who shot such cult films there as The Lineup and Dirty Harry. Siegel also made Count the Hours with the great cinematographer John Alton, who lensed He Walked by Night.

He Walked by Night Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, He Walked by Night arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

In America, He Walked by Night made its high-definition debut with this release from ClassicFlix in 2017. Kino Lorber's release introduces a recent 4K restoration of the film that was struck from a fine grain. I have the previous release in my library and was able to perform plenty of comparisons.

The entire film has a much more convincing and attractive organic appearance now. Despite some small density fluctuations, all visuals convey better delineation, sharpness, and depth. In areas where the density fluctuations are more pronounced, the discrepancies in quality are not as obvious, but elsewhere the superiority of the new 4K makeover is very easy to appreciate. Only clarity appears identical, but the new 4K makeover produces various sharper visuals. The grayscale is very good. Darker material looks particularly good because crushing is avoided. There are no traces of problematic digital corrections, such as degraining and sharpening. Image stability is very good. The entire film looks very clean, too. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

He Walked by Night Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

I was hoping for a major upgrade in the audio department. Unfortunately, the overall quality of the lossless track is very similar to that on the ClassicFlix release of He Walked by Night. In several areas, the audio becomes extremely thin and times it is difficult to tell precisely what is being said. The upper register reveals small distortions as well. Turning the volume up helps a bit, but it is obvious that time has irreversibly affected portions of the soundtrack. No, all of this is not terribly distracting, but you will easily conclude that the audio is not as good as it once was.

He Walked by Night Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary One - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critic Imogen Sara Smith.

• Commentary Two - this archival audio commentary was recorded by critics Alan K. Rode and Julie Kirgo.

• Cover - reversible cover with vintage poster art for He Walked by Night.

He Walked by Night Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

He Walked by Night, The Sniper, The Lineup, and City of Fear are not just terrific film noirs but wonderful time capsules as well. These films, and the many others like them, frequently reveal cities in America that no longer exist, and I love spending time with them. He Walked by Night was the first to enter the massive sewage system of Los Angeles, which as it quickly becomes obvious was a genuine Dark City with seemingly endless very spooky areas. Kino Lorber's release introduces a wonderful exclusive new 4K restoration of Walked by Night, so even if you already have the film in your collection, consider an upgrade. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.