"The Naked City" (1948) Barry Fitzgerald

[rmichaelpyle]

A few days ago I finally had the chance to see a noir I'd never seen before, one which most on this board, no doubt, have already seen - "The Naked City" (1948) with Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Duff, Dorothy Hart, Don Taylor, Frank Conroy, and Ted de Corsia. Interesting the number of former silent stars who appear in small parts, such as Beverly Bayne and Enid Markey, and number of future greats and Broadway standouts, such as Jean Adair, James Gregory and Paul Ford, Arthur O'Connell and David Opatoshu. Even Molly Picon is the soda selling street-shop-keep. And there was Nehemiah Persoff as a smiling man!!

This is such a classic that I'll not give it the plot once-over. Suffice it to say that this is a classic because it IS classic, from the get-go. Barry Fitzgerald - who can lay on the schmaltz thicker than an Ensure food supplement - was never better. He was really good. Howard Duff: ditto. What kept going through my mind was, "This reminds me so much of the way "Law and Order" plays on TV today - even now." And for those of us who go back far enough - of course, this WAS a TV show beginning in the late fifties. A good one, too.

"There are 8 million stories in the Naked City - this has been one of them." (the final line by way of a narrator, in case you've never seen the movie or the TV show)

[Midge]

I have nothing to add except that The Naked City is a must-see for noir fans -- and yes, I do remember that line in the TV show. Here's the plot synopsis from IMDb.com:

Amid a semi-documentary portrait of New York and its people, Jean Dexter, an attractive blonde model, is murdered in her apartment. Homicide detectives Dan Muldoon and Jimmy Halloran investigate. Suspicion falls on various shifty characters who all prove to have some connection with a string of apartment burglaries. Then a burglar is found dead who once had an elusive partner named Willie. The climax is a very rapid manhunt sequence. Filmed entirely on location in New York City.

The annual Noir Festival will be coming to San Francisco in February, and I plan to see at least one double-feature. Maybe if I'm lucky The Naked City will be on the schedule because noirs are so much more enjoyable on the big screen -- in the dark, of course.