Chicago Calling begins with shots of technology that is fast becoming obsolete—still shots of telephone poles and overhead wires (the technology of landline telephone communication)—and jumbled conversations on the soundtrack. The jumbled conversations gradually become more distinct, until one telephone operator (a job that was once plentiful and apparently still exists, according to my online search) says, twice, “Chicago calling.” She introduces the film with its title.
(This article about Chicago Calling contains all the spoilers.)
A voice-over narrator introduces the main characters by their jobs or what they are doing at the precise moment the film begins, which is 7:23 on this particular morning. The narrator tells viewers, “They were starting the day like any other day, not knowing that they had already been singled out to test a man’s faith in his fellow man.” With these words, the narrator is also introducing the element of fate, one of the hallmark characteristics of noir. And without mentioning the word “fate” once, the narrator explains how this film also revolves around the role of fate.
The man the narrator is talking about is William (“Bill”) Cannon, who is introduced next. Dan Duryea is great in this role, and he definitely carries the film. The plot is driven by his decisions and his actions. When he appears in the film for the first time, he descends a flight of steps in a poor Los Angeles (L.A.) neighborhood. He calls for his daughter Nancy, who is playing in a narrow, half-shadowed alley with other children. Nancy is thrilled to see her father, and when she rushes to greet him, he is concerned about her scrapes and scratches. When he asks her about them, Nancy tells him that she was in a fight with a boy named Roy. Roy told her that she and her mother are leaving L.A. and her father behind, something Nancy doesn’t want to believe.
Bill Cannon goes to his apartment, where he finds his wife Mary packing. Bill never came home the night before, and she is sick of his drinking and his lack of steady employment. Bill begs her not to leave; he tries to remind her of his successes in the war (he is a World War II veteran) and his work in and graduation from a photography school. But Mary cannot be dissuaded.
It’s obvious that Bill and Mary care for one another, but Mary’s patience has its limits. She wants durable proof that Bill can change his ways. In the meantime, Bill pawns his camera to pay for Mary’s and Nancy’s car trip to Baltimore, where Mary’s mother lives. Mary found a ride with people who are driving east and advertised for paying passengers. Bill watches them leave from a hiding place and then goes on a bender.
When Bill arrives home again, a telephone company lineman is at the stairs outside the front door because Bill’s phone line and service is to be cut off for nonpayment of past bills. Bill invites the lineman in, but he receives a telegram: Nancy has been seriously injured in a car accident outside Chicago, and Mary will phone with updates. He begs the telephone lineman to let him keep the phone line so that Mary can reach him. The lineman agrees to help him.
Bill spends the rest of his day looking for a way to pay his telephone bill. He finds his friend Pete at work and asks for money, but he already owes Pete money, and Pete cannot afford to lend him more. He begs for an extension on his bill at the telephone company’s offices. He explains his story to Peggy, a waitress at a food truck. She feels sorry for him and gives him five dollars. A young boy named Bobby accidentally hits Smitty, Bill’s dog, with his bike and helps Bill take the dog home. Bobby tells Bill that his doesn’t have any parents; he lives with his older sister, Barbara.
When Bobby was introduced at the start of the film, he was described as working at a market. He looks about nine or ten years old, and he is already working. Bobby offers to give his savings to Bill. They go to the home that he shares with his sister, but he cannot find his piggy bank. The sister’s boyfriend, Art, is asleep in Bobby’s room, and his money clip is on the bed next to him. Bill is tempted but doesn’t take the money. Bobby does take it; he tells Bill that he will replace the money when he finds his piggy bank.
This news weighs heavily on Bill. He appreciates Bobby’s willingness to help, but he doesn’t want the help to come this way. He goes back to Bobby’s house and tells him that he doesn’t want Bobby to steal anything ever again and that he plans to return the money to Art. He doesn’t want Bobby to lie about what happened with the money because he will eventually lie to himself, and before long, he will start believing his own lies. He doesn’t want that to happen to Bobby because he has done it to himself.
Art and the sister return home while Bill is talking to Bobby, and Art accuses Bill of stealing his money. Bill returns the money, while Bobby insists that he was the one who stole it. His sister is furious with both of them, and she and her boyfriend are quick to assign blame. Art calls the police.
Bill and Bobby return to Bill’s apartment. Two police detectives knock on his door with an arrest warrant. But his phone rings: The telephone company lineman is on the pole outside the apartment calling Bill’s number to tell him the line is still open. And Mary calls while the two police detectives are still in the apartment. They let him take the call, and Bill learns that Nancy has died after the car accident outside Chicago. One of the detectives calls police headquarters to arrange it so Bill isn’t arrested after all. But Bill is despondent after finding out about his daughter. He walks the streets aimlessly, with Bobby following him in desperation.
Near the end of Chicago Calling is an amazing sequence in which Bobby throws himself on the barren dirt of a railroad yard and screams for Bill not to hurt himself. The sequence is amazing for a couple of reasons. One is the emotion portrayed by the young actor Gordon Gebert, who plays Bobby. The other is the image of the young boy in complete despair with the train racing past, alternately taking up almost the entire frame and showing just enough to allow Bobby to scream silently because he cannot be heard over the roar of the train. He is inconsolable, and a railroad engineer on the scene can do little to help him. The sequence is emotionally wrenching even today, but it must have been doubly wrenching, even alarming, to see on the big screen in 1951, when films were shown in movie palaces with a single screen taking up the front of the auditorium.
A lot about Chicago Calling qualifies it as a family drama, but it is also a film noir, and one reason is that it certainly doesn’t involve typical family structures for a family drama. Bill and Mary Cannon are still in love with one another, but she leaves him anyway, and some would say for good reasons. He is a heavy drinker, and he cannot seem to hold a job for longer than a few days. He is a World War II veteran, and it is possible the film is pointing out problems for many returning soldiers that were not addressed at the time.
Bobby, the young boy who becomes attached to Bill, is on his own. He works at a market, and there isn’t any evidence that he ever attends school. He is an orphan, and no explanation is given for what happened to his parents. He lives with his older sister, who treats him badly. She tells him that she will send him away once she gets married. When he tells this to Bill, Bill is dismayed, but Bobby is looking forward to getting away from his sister. He and Bill eventually form a family of their own that is not based on biological ties: They simply care about one another.
The plot of the film revolves around practically obsolete technology for viewers in 2025, but that is irrelevant as far as the drama is concerned. The actors’ emotions and their believability do not suffer because the story was filmed in 1951. When Bill tells the railroad engineer that Bobby is his son, the engineer believes him. Bill might not be Bobby’s biological father, but it is clear that there is a real attachment between them. Bill struggles to find enough money to pay his telephone bill, only to hear the harrowing news about the death of his daughter, so it’s a relief that the film ends on a positive note, with Bill making a new connection with a young boy who clearly needs him.
December 31, 1951 (Chicago), January 11, 1952 (United States), release dates • Directed by John Reinhardt • Screenplay by John Reinhardt, Peter Berneis • Music by Heinz Roemheld • Edited by Arthur H. Nadel • Cinematography by Robert de Grasse
Dan Duryea as William (“Bill”) R. Cannon • Mary Anderson as Mary Cannon • Gordon Gebert as Bobby Kimball • Ross Elliott as Jim, the telephone company worker • Melinda Plowman as Nancy Cannon • Judy Brubaker as Barbara (“Babs”) Kimball • Marsha Jones as Peggy • Roy Engel as Pete • Jean Harvey as Christine • Bob Fallon as Art
Distributed by United Artists • Produced by Arrowhead Pictures
