Chicago is one of the most photogenic cities in the world. Its sparkling lakefront, dramatic skyline, diverse ethnic neighborhoods, and gritty industrial sites have long captured the attention of locals and visitors alike, including Hollywood movie producers. Here the city often serves as not only a backdrop, but also as a starring role--almost as important as the characters themselves.
For over a century, starting with The Tramp and the Dog (1896), hundreds of movies have been set in Chicago. They contribute to a sense of civic pride, so much so that the City of Chicago Dept. of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (CASE) has even documented them all on its website. Many films were thrillers based on crimes that occurred when the city was under the spell of the Mafia. The Mafia’s string of illegal gambling, prostitution, bootlegging, and murders thrust Chicago into the international spotlight both in real life and in blockbuster Hollywood films such as Little Caesar (1930), The Public Enemy (1931), and Scarface (1932) defining it for decades as the city of gangsters.
Call Northside 777 (1948) was the first Hollywood movie to be filmed on location in Chicago. This film-noir reality-based story focused on a journalist’s attempt to solve the mystery behind the murder of a Chicago police officer, years after two men had been arrested and convicted of the crime. In his search for the true killer, the reporter discovers that these prisoners had been wrongly accused. The film includes shots of Chicago’s Polish neighborhoods, along with back alleys and streetscapes. Other scenes feature the interiors of the Wrigley Building, Merchandise Mart, Holy Trinity Church, the Back of the Yards, along with tenements, apartments, and saloons, much as they were in real life during the immediate aftermath of World War II.
