The Naked City (Criterion Collection)

I can't remember another movie that took as many chances as THE NAKED CITY and successfully pulled it off. It doesn't look quite like any movie I've seen before and doesn't play quite like any other movie.
The story is simply enough - a young model is found murdered and the Homicide Squad is called in to solve the case.
Even before the murder, though, we're introduced to something new. We're given and aerial sweep and pan shot of the skyline of New York City. A voice over narrator emphatically tells us that this movie was NOT photographed in a studio; the stars perform "in the streets, in the apartment houses, in the skyscrapers of New York City itself." And so it is. No matter how well the set is designed, you can usually spot it as quickly as you can CG animation, and this ALL looks like NYC to me.
The casting is out of the ordinary, as well. I mean, Barry Fitzgerald as top-star in a crime story? Come on. Get serious. Yeah, maybe if you want a pleasant little slightly inebriated Irish chap - but a homicide detective? Yeah, right.
But it works. Fitzgerald is just right as Lt. Daniel Muldoon because this movie doesn't rely on Mike Hammer-ish brutality, or a brilliant and intuitive crime solver. I think the film makers here were looking for a cast who could meld into the city rather than rise above it, and Fitzgerald is a surprising and inspired choice.
This is a movie about dusting for fingerprints and putting evidence in plastic bags. It's about wearing out shoes interviewing potential witnesses and striking out 90% of the time. The Fitzgerald character works because he fits into the world better than a major star would have. The film-makers seem to be striving for a documentary feel to things (I trying not to use the term cinema veritie here).
Scenes are bracketed by location street scenes - hordes of people entering a subway station, a horse-drawn milk cart and milkman on a quiet city street, two young women admiring a gown in an upscale store window.
There's a price to be paid for relying exclusively on location shots. There are a few scenes that sound like the voice recording were done in an echo chamber. And the film has a flat look to it (not all that bad for a noir-ish crime drama.) The reason we can tell studio shots so quickly is because they look good - the photographer has control over lighting and light sourcing.
If there are detective movies and gangster movies and any number of other sub-genres in the Crime category, I guess you'd call this a police procedural movie. There are a couple of punches thrown and a few guns fired, but for the most part attention lingers on characters and procedures. This is one of the first movies, to my knowledge, that seems to recognize that crimes are more likely solved in the lab than in the brain of an inspired crime fighter.
I unhesitatingly recommend this to everybody. For crime and noir buffs, this is a must see.

Between 1947 and 1950, director Jules Dassin shot three revolutionary movies that shook the film noir genre. THE NAKED CITY is one of them and remains, 52 years (!) after its theatrical release, a classic not to be forgotten. The film was shot, for its most part, in the streets of New-York City and on location in real flats or apartments. Just consider that Howard Hawks's THE BIG SLEEP was shot one year before and you will have an idea why Hollywood has been called " The Dream Factory ". The reality depicted in Hollywood movies had nothing to do anymore with real life.

Some critics have compared THE NAKED CITY with the realist italian movies of this period, with Vittorio de Sica's THE BICYCLE THIEF for instance. Anyway, the final chase which will end on the Brooklyn bridge is already part of Movie History.

Jules Dassin's interest for social questions can be observed in various scenes of THE NAKED CITY : Howard Duff's desperate efforts to join the high society, the enlightening story of the murdered girl, the constant opposition between the world of the workers and the world of the rich.

Audio and images are of VHS quality and the master was not of the highest quality. Filmographies of Jules Dassin and Barry Fitzgerald as bonus features.

A DVD for your library if you're a film noir fan.

The Criterion Collection presents "NAKED CITY" (4 March 1948) (96 min/B&W) (Fully Restored/Dolby Digitally Remastered) -- An attractive blonde model is murdered in her apartment and homicide detectives Dan Muldoon (Barry Fitzgerald) and Jimmy Halloran (Don Taylor) 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 great manhunt sequence --- Far from a routine detective story, this was filmed on the streets of New York City with the actors playing their roles along with the people and the locations of the big apple.

The legendary film that inspired the TV series (1958-1963) of the same name, which was a pioneer in the early days of top notch drama.

Under the production staff of:
Jules Dassin [Director]
Malvin Wald [Story]
Albert Maltz [Screenwriter]
Malvin Wald [Screenwriter]
Jules Buck [Associate Producer]
Mark Hellinger [Producer]
Miklós Rózsa [Original Film Score]
William H. Daniels [Cinematographer]
Paul Weatherwax [Film Editor]

BIOS:
1. Jules Dassin [Director]
Date of Birth: 18 December 1911 - Middletown, Connecticut
Date of Death: 31 March 2008 - Athens, Greece

2. Barry Fitzgerald [aka: William Joseph Shields]
Date of Birth: 10 March 1888 - Dublin, Ireland
Date of Death: 14 January 1961 - Dublin, Ireland

3. Howard Duff
Date of Birth: 24 November 1913 - Bremerton, Washington
Date of Death: 8 July 1990 - Santa Barbara, California

the cast includes:
Barry Fitzgerald ... [Det. Lt. Dan Muldoon]
Howard Duff ... [Frank Niles]
Dorothy Hart ... [Ruth Morrison]
Don Taylor ... [Det. Jimmy Halloran]
Frank Conroy ... [Capt. Donahue]
Ted de Corsia ... [Willie Garzah aka Willie the Harmonica]
House Jameson ... [Dr. Stoneman]

SPECIAL FEATURES [BONUS]:
1. New, restored high-definition digital transfer
2. Audio commentary by screenwriter Malvin Wald
3. An analysis of the film's New York locations by Celluloid Skyline author James Sanders
4. A new video interview with NYU film professor Dana Polan
5. Footage of Jules Dassin from his 2004 appearance at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
6. Stills gallery
7. PLUS: A new essay by Luc Sante and production notes from producer Mark Hellinger to Dassin

Mr. Jim's Ratings:
Quality of Picture & Sound: 5 Stars
Performance: 5 Stars
Story & Screenplay: 5 Stars
Overall: 5 Stars [Original Music, Cinematography & Film Editing]

Total Time: 96 min on DVD ~ Criterion ~ (03/20/2007)