Footsteps in the Night

Footsteps in the Night from 1957 was apparently the last of a series of five films starring Bill Elliot as an LA sheriff's department detective. I pray God I don't accidentally run into the other four.

The lead, Bill Elliott was some sort of western star, but I had no familiarity with him. Just as well.

A young man, Henry Johnson, is suspected of murdering his neighbor, Fred Horner (Robert Shayne, Inspector Henderson on Superman). The body was found in his motel room.

Johnson, a compulsive gambler, claims he was playing cards with Horner and went to the kitchen to make him a drink; when he returned, Horner was dead on the floor. He panicked and fled.

Turns out a wealthy man was staying in a motel with a similar name, in the identical room number. Detective Duke (Elliott) believes the wrong man was murdered.

Appallingly acted. I felt sorry for Johnson, who was trying to quit gambling and was bullied into a game by Horner. I assume he learned his lesson since his girlfriend took him back.

With Footsteps In The Night, Wild Bill Elliott said farewell to the silver screen. And the noted cowboy actor did it with his boots off so to speak.

His last film as Detective Lieutenant Andy Doyle of the LA County Sheriff has him investigating the case of Robert Shayne being murdered in his hotel room following a card game with Douglas Dick. Shayne was known as a miserly sort and he yelled loud and long about parting with a nickel. The quarrel was heard and Dick became a prime suspect immediately.

But when Dick is apprehended his story plus other things that didn't add up convince Elliott to look for alternative theories. What he finds I won't say, but it's astonishingly simple.

No doubt Elliott with these modern detective films was fulfilling a contractual obligation to Allied Artists. I've seen a lot of his work over the past couple of years. At one time he was poised to enter the big time as that other cowboy actor John Wayne did.

Again this is a good police drama. But not like anything else that wasn't being seen on the small screen at this time.

In his last screen appearance Western star Bill Elliott loses the cowboy boots and goes out with his Florshiems on as Los Angeles Homicide Lieutenant Andy Doyle in this contemporary police drama. Doyle and his partner Sgt. Mike Duncan (Don Haggerty) are called to the scene when an apparently well liked retiree (Robert Shayne) is found murdered on the floor of his neighbor Henry Johnson's (Douglas Dick) Hollywood bungalow. Fearing he will be set up for a murder rap, Johnson flees the scene with Doyle and Duncan not far behind.

After the Monogram Pictures unit of Allied Artists was shutdown in 1953, the decision was made to discontinue production of Western films. To fulfill his contractual obligation to the studio Elliott appeared in a series of five crime dramas beginning with 'Dial Red O' in 1955. 'Footsteps in the Night', was helmed by prolific director Jean Yarbrough ( Abbott and Costello, Bowery Boys). Yarbrough was known for bringing films in quickly, competently and on budget, which is exactly what he does with this film. Yarbrough seemed to have a near religious like conviction that no movie should extend beyond 75 minutes.

'Footsteps' is the last entry in the Bill Elliot detective series and a pretty decent B crime flick. Definitely lower budget, it has the feel of an elongated television episode. Complete with campy but cool 1950's jazzy soundtrack and several exterior location shots, it makes this crime quickie worth a look.

Saw via YouTube 9/13/2018. Just about the best-looking print ever seen on YouTube - picture and sound clearer than many a movie done years later.

Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives played by oater icon Bill Elliott and "Asphalt Jungle"'s Don Haggerty right away believe they know who killed Fred Horner (played in flashback by "Superman"'s Robert Shayne). They zero in on Henry Johnson (Douglas Dick), Horner's neighbor who is also a shakily recovering gambler permanently engaged to Mary Raiken (the beautiful Eleanor Tanin).

But Elliott's Lt. Doyle senses they've jumped to a conclusion - they've missed something. And so the plot changes, even if it doesn't quite "thicken" in an entirely convincing way.

Famous for his work in westerns, Elliott's amiably slow, drawling performance as a cop was something that I found very realistic and believable. I think people in his line of work were probably more like him than SFPD's Frank Bullitt or Harry Callahan. Loved the location shots (presented as West Hollywood and maybe they were), the script not quite so much. Still, I spent a very entertaining 62 minutes watching "Footsteps in the Night." I could not have asked for more than that.

Two cornball cops solve a murder. Nothing special about this flick. It felt like a TV show in the Dragnet vein.