The Naked City

Unrated

3/4/19481h 36m

Theatrical Release (US)

~ The soul of a city. Her glory stripped! Her passion bared! ~

Overview:

After a former model is drowned in her bathtub, Detective James Halloran and Lieutenant Dan Muldoon attempt to piece together her murder.

Director:

Jules Dassin

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Key words:

new york city
narration
film noir
murder
docudrama
semi-documentary
procedural

Cast

Barry Fitzgerald

~ as ~

Lt. Dan Muldoon

Howard Duff

~ as ~

Frank Niles

Dorothy Hart

~ as ~

Ruth Morrison

Don Taylor

~ as ~

Jimmy Halloran

Frank Conroy

~ as ~

Captain Donahue

Ted de Corsia

~ as ~

Willy Garzah

House Jameson

~ as ~

Dr. Lawrence Stoneman

Anne Sargent

~ as ~

Mrs. Halloran

Adelaide Klein

~ as ~

Mrs. Batory

Grover Burgess

~ as ~

Mr. Batory

View full cast & crew

Reviews (3)

JPV852
Written 4 year(s) ago
8
Entertaining crime-drama featuring some great NYC locales and the performance from Barry Fitzgerald was fun. Not a great film noir so can't say it's a classic in my book, but still a well done film from the 1940s. 3.75/5
griggs79
Written 7 month(s) ago
4
By being filmed on the streets of New York, Naked City is a film that earnestly attempts to bring a sense of realism to the noir genre. This ambitious attempt, however, falls short of the mark, lacking the grit and charm that define true noir, and becomes painfully melodramatic. Its effort at authenticity is marred by its excessive voiceover, as Brian Cox's character in Adaptation. warned: "And God help you if you use voiceover in your work, my friends. God help you. That's flaccid, sloppy writing." The narration feels like a lazy shortcut that detracts from the visual storytelling instead of enhancing it.

This one's all talk, no grit.
CinemaSerf
Written 7 month(s) ago
7
There's quite an affecting documentary feel to this film as "Lt. Muldoon" (Barry Fitzgerald) investigates the drowning of model "Jean" in what should have been the safety of her New York apartment. This cop is no slouch and is quickly dragging his newbie sidekick "Jimmy" (Don Taylor) all over the place in search of clues. Suspicion initially falls on the woman's close friend "Niles" (Howard Duff) but the police are pretty convinced that her maid, and also possibly her best pal "Ruth" (Dorothy Hart), may know more than they're letting on too. When they discover a bottle of sedatives, that some of her jewellery has gone missing and then a corpse floating in the East River the men must wade through a mire of lies, deceit and mis-information from witnesses who seem determined that the truth will never out. Fitzgerald is entirely convincing in this drama. He leads the process with a gritty determination and a plausible eye for not just the detail but the practical. He knows his city and he knows how to best to get results - sometimes using less conventional methods as he and his team start to hone in on the criminal and their MO. Taylor also does well here marrying the rookie approach to his task with a fresh angle less available to his less flexible boss. Hart, too, contributes well but it's really the procedural approach to the crime that sets this apart from standard mysteries. The writing reads as if it is based on real life experiences and also on an understanding of the value of the emerging use of scientific processes and team policing to narrow the field and get to the perpetrators. It takes it's time, but it never drags and there are clues for us watching to piece together too as this untrustworthy bunch look to self preservation more than to solving the killing. This takes a different approach to thriller story-telling and though I found the score a bit intrusive at times, I did enjoy it.