The Naked City

The Naked City
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jules Dassin
Produced by	Mark Hellinger
Written by	Story: Malvin Wald Screenplay: Albert Maltz Malvin Wald
Narrated by	Mark Hellinger
Starring	Barry Fitzgerald Howard Duff Dorothy Hart Don Taylor
Music by	Miklós Rózsa Frank Skinner
Cinematography	William H. Daniels
Editing by	Paul Weatherwax
Distributed by	Universal Studios
Release date(s)	March 4, 1948 (United States)
Running time	96 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

The Naked City is a 1948 black-and-white film noir directed by Jules Dassin. The movie, shot in documentary style, was filmed on location on the streets of New York City, featuring landmarks such as the Williamsburg Bridge and the Whitehall Building in Manhattan. William H. Daniels won an Academy Award for his cinematography.^[1]

Based on a story by Malvin Wald, The Naked City portrays the police investigation that follows the murder of a young model. A veteran cop is placed in charge of the case and he sets about, with the help of other beat cops and detectives, finding the girl's killer. The Naked City producer Mark Hellinger's voice was used for the film's narration. Hellinger died of a sudden heart attack after a preview of the movie. The film was the inspiration for the 1958-63 TV series Naked City.

According to the book Noir Style by Alain Silver and James Ursini, the visual style of The Naked City was inspired by New York photographer Weegee, who published a book of photos of New York life entitled Naked City (1945).^[2]

In 2007, the film The Naked City was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot

In the late hours of a hot New York summer night, a pair of men subdue and kill Jean Dexter, an ex-model, by knocking her out with chloroform and drowning her in her bathtub. When one of the murderers, conscience-stricken, gets drunk, the other kills him, then lift his body into the air and throw it into the East River.

Homicide Detective Lt. Dan Muldoon (Barry Fitzgerald) and his young associate, Jimmy Halloran (Don Taylor), are assigned to Jean's case, which the medical examination has determined was murder, not an accident. Muldoon has been a homicide cop for 22 years; Halloran for three months.

At the scene, the police interrogate Martha Swenson (Virginia Mullen), Jean's housekeeper, about Jean's friends, who tells them about a "Mr. Henderson." They also discover a bottle of sleeping pills. Halloran questions Dr. Lawrence Stoneman (House Jameson), who prescribed the pills, and Ruth Morrison (Dorothy Hart), another model.

Back at the police station, Muldoon questions Frank Niles (Howard Duff), who lies about everything, including claiming only a business relationship with Jean and denying knowing Ruth, to whom he is engaged. The police quickly discover the truth behind many of his lies. Later, Muldoon deduces from the bruises on Jean's neck that she was killed by at least two men. That evening, Mr. and Mrs. Batory, Jean's estranged parents, arrive in New York to formally identify the body, and tell the detectives that they have no knowledge of Jean's acquaintances. The next morning, the detectives learn that Frank sold a gold cigarette case stolen from Stoneman, then purchased a one-way airline ticket to Mexico. They also discover that Jean's ring was stolen from the home of a wealthy Mrs. Hylton (Enid Markey). At Mrs. Hylton's Park Avenue apartment, the police learn that the ring actually belonged to her daughter, who, to their surprise, turns out to be Ruth.

Learning that Ruth's engagement ring is also stolen property, Muldoon and Halloran take Ruth to Frank's apartment, where they coincidently interrupt someone trying to murder him. The killer takes a shot at the cops and escapes onto the nearby elevated train. When questioned about the stolen jewelry, Frank claims that they were all presents from Jean, which reveals his true relationship with her, much to Ruth's chagrin. Frank is then arrested for the jewel thefts, but the murder case remains open. Halloran learns that a body recovered from the East River (that of Peter Backalis (Walter Burke), a small-time burglar) died within hours of the Dexter murder and connects the two incidents. Muldoon, although skeptical, lets him pursue the lead and assigns two veteran detectives on the squad to help Halloran with the legwork.

Through further tedious investigation, Halloran discovers that Backalis' accomplice on a jewelry store burglary was Willie Garzah (Ted de Corsia), a former wrestler with a penchant for playing the harmonica. While Halloran and his team canvass the Lower East Side of New York using an old publicity photograph of Garzah, Muldoon compels Frank Niles to identify Jean's mystery boyfriend. Dr. Stoneman is "Henderson". At Stoneman's office, Muldoon uses Frank to trap the married physician into confessing that he fell in love with Jean, only to learn that she and Frank were using him in order to rob his society friends. Frank then confesses that Garzah killed Jean and Backalis. Halloran and Muldoon, using different approaches, have come up with the same killer.

Meanwhile, Halloran finally locates Garzah and, pretending that Backalis is in the hospital, tries to trick Garzah to accompany him back to the hospital, but Garzah (knowing he killed Backalis) sees through the ruse. The ex-wrestler "rabbit punches" the rookie detective, momentarily knocking him unconscious. Garzah attempts to disappear in the crowded city, but as police descend upon the neighborhood, a panicked Garzah draws attention to himself when he shoots and kills a blind man's guide dog on the pedestrian walk of The Williamsburg Bridge. Garzah attempts to flee over the bridge but as police approach from both directions, he starts climbing one of the towers, and is shot and wounded. High on the tower, Garzah refuses to surrender, gunfire is exchanged, he is hit again and falls to his death.

Cast

• Barry Fitzgerald as Detective Lt. Dan Muldoon
• Howard Duff as Frank Niles
• Dorothy Hart as Ruth Morrison
• Don Taylor as Detective Jimmy Halloran
• Frank Conroy as Captain Donahue
• Ted de Corsia as Willie Garzah aka Willie the Harmonica
• House Jameson as Dr. Stoneman
• Anne Sargent as Mrs. Halloran
• Adelaide Klein as Mrs. Paula Batory
• Grover Burgess as Mr. Batory
• Tom Pedi as Detective Perelli
• Enid Markey as Mrs. Edgar Hylton
• Walter Burke as Pete Backalis
• Virginia Mullen as Martha Swenson
• Mark Hellinger as Narrator

Critical reception

Film critic Bosley Crowther, while having problems with the script, liked the location shooting and wrote, "Thanks to the actuality filming of much of its action in New York, a definite parochial fascination is liberally assured all the way and the seams in a none-too-good whodunnit are rather cleverly concealed. And thanks to a final, cops-and-robbers "chase" through East Side Manhattan and on the Williamsburg Bridge, a generally talkative mystery story is whipped up to a roaring 'Hitchcock' end."^[3]

Awards

Wins

• Academy Awards: Oscar, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, William H. Daniels; Best Film Editing, Paul Weatherwax; 1949.

Nominations

• Academy Awards: Oscar, Best Writing, Motion Picture Story, Malvin Wald; 1949.
• British Academy of Film and Television Arts: BAFTA Film Award, Best Film from any Source, USA; 1949.
• Writers Guild of America: WGA Award (Screen), Best Written American Drama, Albert Maltz and Malvin Wald; The Robert Meltzer Award (Screenplay Dealing Most Ably with Problems of the American Scene), Albert Maltz and Malvin Wald; 1949.

Honors

Notable quote

• Narrator: There are eight million stories in the Naked City; this has been one of them.

See also

• List of American films of 1948

References

External links

• The Naked City at the Internet Movie Database
• The Naked City at Allmovie
• The Naked City at the TCM Movie Database
• The Naked City at DVD Beaver (includes images)
• The Naked City film clip at You Tube