CRY OF THE CITY / THE NAKED CITY

ABOUT THE EVENT: 

7:30pm | Introduction

7:40pm | CRY OF THE CITY

9:15pm | Intermission 

9:25pm | THE NAKED CITY

Start times are approximate.

ABOUT THE FILMS:

CRY OF THE CITY, 95 Minutes, Disney, USA. 

Originally released September 29, 1948 by 20th Century–Fox

Screenplay by Richard Murphy and Ben Hecht, based on The Chair for Martin Rome by Henry Edward Helseth

Produced by Sol C. Siegel

Directed by Robert Siodmak

Perhaps the most perfectly realized, thematically and stylistically, of all Siodmak’s noir films.  Victor Mature is the lawman and Richard Conte the fugitive crook he pursues across Manhattan with tragic results. It may be light on plot, but the searing performances from both men are more than enough to compensate. These are two heavyweights in their prime, and watching them square off is a thrill matched only by the scene-stealing Hope Emerson (in her film debut, no less). Her conniving masseuse proves to be a pain-in-the-neck to Conte in more ways than one. Shot entirely on location, Siodmak skips the semi-documentary vogue of the day, creating instead an expressionistic urban landscape ideally suited to this mythic mid-20th-century tale of good and evil.

CAST: Victor Mature (Lt. Vittorio Candella), Richard Conte (Martin Rome), Fred Clark (Lt. Jim Collins), Shelley Winters (Brenda Martingale), Betty Garde (nurse Frances Pruett), Berry Kroeger (W.A. Niles), Tommy Cook (Tony Rome), Debra Paget (Teena Riconti), Hope Emerson (Rose Given), Roland Winters (Ledbetter), Walter Baldwin (Orvy), June Storey (Miss Boone), Tito Vuolo (Papa Roma), Mimi Aguglia (Mama Roma), Konstantin Shayne (Dr. Veroff), Howard Freeman (Sullivan)

FORMAT: 35mm

THE NAKED CITY, 96 Minutes, Janus Films, USA. 

Originally released March 4, 1948 by Universal–International

Screenplay by Albert Maltz and Malvin Wald

Produced by Mark Hellinger

Directed by Jules Dassin

This landmark crime movie, producer Mark Hellinger’s hardboiled tribute to his beloved Big Apple, peels away all the stylistic melodramatics of noir to present Hollywood’s first true policier. Detectives Jimmy Halloran (Don Taylor) and Dan Muldoon (Barry Fitzgerald) are tasked with solving the murder of an ex-model in a bathtub and sifting through the dubious list of suitors she left behind. Jules Dassin directs with the economy and precision of a real-life investigator, culminating in a chase scene that ranks among the finest that noir has ever featured. Scrupulously researched writing by Malvin Wald and vivid location photography by William Daniels (an Oscar-winner) combined to make this one of the most influential Hollywood films of all-time, the template for thousands of cop shows to come.

CAST: Barry Fitzgerald (Detective Lt. Dan Muldoon), Howard Duff (Frank Niles), Dorothy Hart (Ruth Morrison), Don Taylor (Detective Jimmy Halloran), Frank Conroy (Captain Donahue), Ted de Corsia (Willie Garzah), House Jameson (Dr. Lawrence Stoneman), Anne Sargent (Mrs. Halloran), Adelaide Klein (Mrs. Paula Batory), Grover Burgess (Mr. Batory), Tom Pedi (Detective Perelli), Walter Burke (Pete Backalis), Mark Hellinger (narrator)

FORMAT: DCP