Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

grantss Decent, though fairly conventional, murder drama.A woman is murdered in her New York apartment. Detective Lt Dan Muldoon and his men from the Homicide Squad are on the case...Interesting, in that all the scenes were shot on actual New York locations - nothing was shot in a studio. Unfortunately, this self- proclaimed (by the narrator/producer) novelty is about all that is innovative about the movie. Plot is a fairly conventional, investigation-based, whodunnit. There are some intrigues along the way, but nothing you can't see from a distance away. No great twists at all.If anything, this is a movie about how police detectives do their jobs, and, in that, it succeeds very well. Not film noir (unlike some descriptions of it) - it's far from gritty or intriguing enough.Good work by Barry Fitzgerald as Lt Muldoon. Solid supporting cast too.One sour note is the narration (by producer Mark Hellinger). Most of it is unnecessary, and thus it dumbs down the movie. You feel like you are been spoon-fed information you can easily figure out for yourself. I would rather there was no narration at all.

SnoopyStyle The movie proclaims that this is filmed in the real city. Two men kill Jean Dexter in NYC. One of them gets drunk and a conscience. The other one kills him and throws the body into the river. Police detectives Dan Muldoon (Barry Fitzgerald) and Jimmy Halloran (Don Taylor) are assigned Dexter's case.This is a rather dry police procedural. The real locations give it an almost neorealistic feel. The early narration give it a news report feel. The acting is nothing special. Fitzgerald is more of a character actor. Taylor is rather stiff. The investigation procedural is a little bit interesting. The most interesting aspect of this movie are the location shoots. The vibrant street life and then the final chase are all terrific.

rooee "There are eight million stories in New York City," intones the narrator, "and this is just one of them." Not all stories are as gripping as this one, though. The Naked City is a tough-as-nails detective noir (there are two murders in the first five minutes) from Jules "Rififi" Dassin, and it delivers all the suspicion, salaciousness, and shooting one could hope for – albeit not much more.As with his previous film, the prison drama Brute Force, Dassin is plunging us into a brutal underworld, although this time we're watching events from the perspective of the cops, led by Lieutenant Muldoon (Barry Fitzgerald), as they investigate the murder of a female model. Suspects come and go, with some really dodgy ones thrown in as red herrings, before the culprit takes his pursuers on a tour of New York landmarks.Claiming to present the city "as it is", Dassin shot the film largely without sets, giving the exterior scenes in particular an unusual (for 1948) sense of authenticity. The same can't be said of the performances, which are wildly melodramatic at times, although in the lead role Fitzgerald brings a typically wicked dry wit.The script might lack the sharpness of a true classic such as Double Indemnity, and the dialogue could have done with some hard boiling by the likes of Jim "The Killing" Thompson, but the film ebbs and flows admirably, daring to portray detective work as an imperfect science. For every revelation or clue there's a mad man or woman claiming they killed Jean Dexter. At one point the investigation comes to a shuddering halt as the men claw for leads. But it's all in the service of a tremendous third act, which ramps up the pace, and leads to a brilliantly composed chase 'em up finale, of which a certain Mr Hitchcock would have been proud.What stops The Naked City from matching Hitch's finest work is a lack of anything to really distinguish it from the crowd. The absurdly verbose narrator pushes the idea that it is, in a sense, the ugly city itself that's killed beautiful Jean, but it's a theme that never fully convinces in what we're actually shown. The film does come to life in a handful of individual scenes – such as a visit to the mortuary, where Jean's mother decries her daughter before crying for her; or a confrontation with a rabbit-punching ex-wrestler – but overall there's little here not done before, bar a documentary-style conceit hardly plundered."It's a heavy case," we're told more than once, and it's a heavy film. Unsentimental and intensely talky (until that last act), it's a well-constructed, if ultimately unremarkable, police procedural in which to sink on a Sunday afternoon.

seymourblack-1 At the time of its release, "The Naked City" was a contemporary offering in the sense that it utilised the "docu-noir" and "Italian neorealist" styles which were popular during the late 1940s. More significantly, however, it was also incredibly innovative and influential because, not only was it the first movie to be shot entirely on-location in New York City but also it's widely acknowledged as being the first movie to show in detail, the very routine nature of a police investigation. This effectively paved the way for all the police procedural films that followed and so its significance in cinema history is difficult to overstate.The role that the city plays is enormous as its presence and characteristics are re-emphasised repeatedly throughout the film. The use of location shooting, views of the subways and non-professionals in some of the supporting roles, all add authenticity to the action and shots of children at play, street vendors and busy streets convey a strong sense of the vitality of the city and its relentless nature.When the dead body of a beautiful young woman is found in her apartment by her housekeeper, Detective Lieutenant Dan Muldoon (Barry Fitzgerald) and his young partner, Detective Jimmy Halloran (Don Taylor) are assigned to the case. After the medical examiner confirms that Jean Dexter (who was a model), had been murdered, Muldoon questions the housekeeper, Martha Swenson (Virginia Mullen) about her employer's friends and this leads to Frank Niles (Howard Duff), Dr Lawrence Stoneman (House Jameson) and Ruth Morrison (Dorothy Hart) all being interviewed by the detectives.Niles had been one of the victim's ex-boyfriends who had since become engaged to Ruth Morrison. He proves to be an inveterate liar and further checks establish that he'd sold a gold cigarette case that had been stolen from Dr Stoneman and that his fiancée's engagement ring had also been stolen. Dr Stoneman confirms that he had prescribed the sleeping tablets that had been found in the victim's apartment and Ruth Morrison, a model who'd worked with Dexter, is soon regarded as not being involved in any wrongdoing.Further investigations reveal that Jean Dexter and Frank Niles had been involved in arranging jewellery thefts and that they had hired other criminals to actually carry out the robberies. This information then leads to the killer's identity and motive finally being discovered.The police officers in this movie are depicted as being good humoured, scrupulously honest and not at all cynical. Muldoon is a very friendly and experienced detective who has spent most of his career dealing with homicide investigations and Barry Fitzgerald is amusing but also sometimes a little over-the-top in the way that he portrays this Irishman. Don Taylor is good in his role as Halloran who is Muldoon's very enthusiastic and well-meaning partner and Howard Duff provides some moments of humour in his excellent performance as the disreputable Niles who is unable to open his mouth without telling a series of lies. Ted de Corsia also makes a strong impression in his minor part as a harmonica-playing wrestler!Producer Mark Hellinger's narration is very dated but Jules Dassin's direction and the quality of William H Daniels' Oscar-winning cinematography are both very impressive. Another outstanding highlight of this film is the final chase sequence which is both exciting and brilliantly choreographed.