Call Northside 777

 Call Northside 777 is a 1948 black and white film directed by Henry Hathaway and which starred James Stewart (Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey) and Richard Conte (Emilio Barzini in The Godfather).  It was based on the true story of a man wrongly convicted of murdering a Chicago police officer in 1932.

McNeal (Stewart), a Chicago Times reporter, inquires into a personal ad placed in its newspaper offering $5,000 ($80,000 today) to anyone who can provide new evidence which will free Frank Wiecek (Conte), a man convicted of killing a Chicago police officer eleven years before.  The ad says to call Northside 777, the phone number of Wiecek's mother who placed the ad.

Skeptical after first meeting the mother, McNeal then decides to interview Wiecek at his prison in Joliet, IL.  Wiecek provides little information as to why anyone would believe he is innocent.  He was convicted and his conviction was upheld on appeal by the Illinois State Supreme Court.

McNeal decides to write stories about the case from a human interest point of view.  He interviews Wiecek's ex-wife (now remarried) and young son.  She told McNeal that Wiecek insisted she get a divorce because he believed he would never get out of prison and their son deserved better.  But, his ex-wife is convinced of his innocence.  

Wiecek is angry when he sees what McNeal is doing.  He tells McNeal he'd rather stay in prison "a thousand years" than see his family photographed and written about in the newspaper.  This impresses McNeal, who starts to change his mind about Wiecek's guilt.

The biggest damning piece of evidence against Wiecek is the eyewitness testimony of Wanda Skutnik, a woman who stated that she never saw Wiecek on the day she identified him as the murderer in a police lineup.  If she is proven to have lied, Wiecek could win another trial.  

McNeal finds an old newspaper photograph of Wiecek and Skutnik being brought together into a police station.  But on what date?

Using new technology of the day (1943), a portion of the photograph showing someone holding a newspaper is blown up many times in order to reveal the newspaper's date.  Finally, it shows the same date as the day of the lineup.  

In the end, Wiecek is freed from prison and is reunited with his mother and son.