ThiefHott Too much of everything

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

elvircorhodzic The NAKED CITY is a film that has a strange modern tone. This my statement does not apply to authentic locations or semi-documentary style. I think that tone creates gorgeous, bizarre and humorous narration. Great narrator observes the lives of ordinary people "from above".The film was made with a lot of style. At the heart of the story is killing beautiful and hot models in New York. However, the action takes us to every corner of the big city and the privacy of ordinary people. Fiction is well hidden until the very end, that detective pursuit. Then the film goes into a good detective story.Drama is superficial, details are special, but repetitive and somehow give the impression of the daily routine. Daily routine does not follow the story of the film. This movie is certainly not an ordinary day in the big city. It is true that the big news, such as murder, very soon forgotten. However, leave traces.Acting is not at all special. Standard in a detective story. Barry Fitzgerald as Detective Lt. Dan Muldoon definitely stands out, but I do not see any specialty. I think the director has not cleared himself. Focus on the city or the citizens? It is a question !?

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.

romanorum1 The narrator intones, "There are eight million stories in the naked city …" as the film begins with scenes of the quiet city in the early hours after midnight. We are introduced to those who are working the third shift in a city that never sleeps. We know that we are not seeing a studio, for the "actors" – those who populate the great city of New York – are eventually observed in apartments, skyscrapers, factories, restaurants, coffee shops, parks, docks, and sidewalks. The city is hot in the summer. During the beginning narration, an unconscious blonde model is being murdered at the young age of 26 years. Within four hours, one of the two murderers kills the other and throws his body into the river. A few hours after that, the cleaning lady enters Miss Dexter's apartment, sees the body in a bathtub, and screams. Now our story takes hold. The police are quickly on the scene, and the newspapers follow. Before long the police examiner determines that the promiscuous woman's death was not by accident or suicide, but by homicide.Soon the lawmen discover that the dissolute woman was part of a jewel burglary ring that targeted the rich folks. Frank Niles, disreputable and a pathological liar, and Jean Dexter were part of the set-ups. Also a famous doctor is involved. In reality this film is a routine detective story. It involves the somewhat tedious but difficult – and sometimes dangerous – police work of investigation, of gathering information and piecing it all together. But the detectives and police are dedicated heroes who do their jobs with little complaint. It all comes down to a climax that involves an exciting city-wide dragnet for the arch-killer. Unfortunately for him, he is unable to board an overcrowded bus that would have taken him away from the targeted area. A panicked gunshot at a seeing-eye dog alerts police, and the ending occurs at the Williamsburg Bridge in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Case closed.As for Jean Dexter, "her name, her face, her history were worth five cents a day for six days." Now, with the case over, the old newspapers lying in the streets are cleaned up by the city trash men. Dexter is soon forgotten by virtually all, for there are eight million other stories brewing. A very few, including Dexter's grief-stricken parents, will never forget. The next day another story will reach the headlines, and our police heroes will be ready to solve another crime.Alhtough Muldoon spearheads the investigation, he is assisted by Jimmy Halloran (Don Taylor); there are other detectives, like Constantino and Perelli, although they have lesser roles. The Irish brogue of Barry Fitzgerald (Det. Lt. Dan Muldoon) can be a bit overpowering, but the pint-sized detective does deliver his lines with knowledge and charm. And is he shrewd! Howard Duff plays sleaze Frank Niles, and Ted DeCorsia is a wicked Willie Garzah. The film's producer, Mark Hellinger, narrates.Shot on location on New York City streets in secret, and semi-documentary in style, the film is ground-breaking. It was obviously the inspiration of the later TV series, "Naked City" (1958-1963), and even "Dragnet" before that. The black and white photography is so good that the movie earned an Academy Award. Another award was won for film editing. While the old-time life of the city has changed, many of the police procedures seen are obviously in use today. If the plot seems standard or if the story appears boring at times, remember that detailed police procedure works the same way: constant probing, questioning, checking, and rechecking. Much less often does it consist of high speed chases and slam-bang shoot-outs. Who is the real hero of the story? Why the personality of the city of New York, of course!

evening1 I admit I work long days and don't have a lot of energy once I get home to watch one of my DVR'd movies. But I tried four times to see this film through to the end, and each time it put me to sleep. I finally gave up and deleted the loser.The movie starts out somewhat intriguingly in a documentary-like mode as it examines snippets of New York City life to set the scene. We then witness the last moments of a murder, which, strangely, the voice-over treats in a casual, jarringly wry manner. The movie then goes on to create a touchy-feely, leprechaun-like characterization of Irish police Lt. Muldoon and show his dedicated team of gumshoes, most notably Don Taylor as Halloran, an actor who bears an uncanny resemblance to Steve Doocy, a current FOX news network anchor. The scenes of Halloran at home with his perky, childish wife are dated, cutesy, and off-putting.Balancing this stuff out is a dour and extended visit with the dead woman's saturnine parents and scenes from the extremely dysfunctional relationship of sleazy murder suspect Frank Niles and Dorothy Hart as Ruth Morrison. The audience is supposed to dumbly accept that a gorgeous pin-up type like Ruth has no problem hitching her destiny to a creep like Niles. (I hate when audiences are taken for such fools!)I'm sorry I tried so many times to see this messy patchwork to its conclusion. The more I saw, the less I cared whodunit.