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(NYT150) ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. -- March 26, 2003 -- Adv. for Sun., March 30 -- TV-CONFIDENTIAL-3 -- "Call Northside 777'' was a black and white crime film made in mock-documentary style by Henry Hathaway in 1948. Based on an actual case, it tracked a cynical Chicago reporter as he uncovered the facts necessary to free a man falsely convicted for murdering a police officer. The show's influence can be seen in a cleverly conceived television series: A&E's "City Confidential,'' a true-crime show that visits places as disparate as Los Angeles, Miami, Ruthton, Minn., and Skidmore, Mo., and makes them central to its plots. Each hourlong episode applies the same successful formula, mixing history, geography and, usually, murder. The show on the killing of a Los Angeles strip club entrepreneur named Horace "Big Mac'' McKenna, right, which has its premiere in April is filled with lines Mickey Spillane would have tossed, among them, "The news blew through like a sailor with a pocketful of greenbacks.'' McKennawith two unidentified men in Orange County, Calif., in an undated photo. (Jupiter Entertainment/The New York Times)**ONLY FOR USE WITH STORY BY BARRY GIFFORD SLUGGED: TV-CONFIDENTIAL. ALL OTHER USE PROHIBITED.