The Naked City (1948)
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The Naked City Movie Review
The Naked City is a 1948 noir crime film directed by Jules Dassin and starring Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Duff, Dorothy Hart and Don Taylor. It’s a standard, but very well made noir.
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“There are eight million stories in the naked city.
This has been one of them“
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The film depicts the police investigation that follows the murder of a young model. This film is American, but it was obviously very inspired by Italian neorealism in its approach to storytelling and a very grounded tone. The extreme realism on display was rare for the time and so was the graphic violence. Some of the most violent scenes must have been quite shocking back then.
The beginning was instantly intriguing while that ending was quite climactic, thrilling and fun. It was a chase scene that was epic and so well executed in its action set pieces. The movie’s crime elements and a suspenseful atmosphere made it fit firmly within the noir genre conventions and it’s a pretty good, though standard representative of it.
Barry Fitzgerald stole the show in terms of the performances and his character is the most memorable of the bunch. Howard Duff and Don Taylor are quite solid themselves and so was Dorothy Hart. Most of these roles were well written and their characters solidly fleshed out. The directing from Jules Dassin is also very polished and so is the entire movie while the editing, pacing and score are all super competent.
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The Naked City is at its best when it’s focusing on depicting New York City in its full glory and terror. This movie offers a snippet of the city back in the late forties and in that area it almost felt documentarian in its approach and feel. The black-and-white cinematography is absolutely gorgeous, strikingly shadowy and fully atmospheric, making the case that the film’s Oscar win in that category was very much deserved.
The Naked City has a somewhat simple plot and it is a standard noir crime film for the most part, but it was elevated by an intriguing beginning and a very memorable, climactic ending. The movie is very well acted, directed and scored while featuring strong narration and a uniquely grounded look at NYC of the late forties, making it feel almost documentarian in its approach. Its Oscar-winning cinematography was especially polished and striking.
My Rating – 4
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