Call Northside 777

“It couldn't happen... but it did!”

In Chicago in 1943, eleven years after a policeman was shot dead, a small newspaper ad from the convicted man's mother catches the eye of reporter P.J. McNeal (James Stewart). He sets out to prove Frank Wiecek (Richard Conte) guilty, then finds the authorities in no hurry to reopen the case. Henry Hathaway, working from a true story, shoots on real Chicago locations and treats the investigation like a case file.