A beautiful model is killed and a couple of hours later, a known drunk at least known to his associates as a boozer is found floating in the Hudson River. Just two stories in the Naked City and who could know they were connected in any way.
There's no mystery involved in Jules Dassin's The Naked City because we know immediately that Ted DeCorsia is the guilty party. But it's how they are connected and how DeCorsia is literally brought down that The Naked City plot deals with.
Homicide cops Barry Fitzgerald and Don Taylor are assigned to the case and the plot of the film is pretty much like the police investigation part of a typical Law and Order episode. That is if Law and Order had been done back in 1948 and shoe leather replaced letting your fingers do the walking over a computer. That part of the job is handled by the younger and more vigorous Taylor.
Dassin does make one glaring error though, but without it there would be no climax. Taylor may be a new guy as a detective, but he did pound a beat and was no rookie policeman. Why when he had a rough idea of where DiCorsia was he didn't wait for his backup is a dumb mistake.
The key performance is that of Howard Duff who just keeps lying like a rug even as the police have him dead bang involved in some way in both cases. I've known at least one person like that in my life, a pathological liar who just gets used to the lies, it's a miracle he keeps his stories straight.
The Naked City was the film debut of two beloved character players James Gregory and Walter Burke. Gregory has his one scene with Don Taylor where Gregory is a beat cop who gave him a key lead on DeCorsia's identity and Burke is the second victim and he's killed in the first ten minutes of the film.
But the real star of The Naked City is 1948 New York in which your's truly has no memory of because I was in my first year on the planet. No accident that The Naked City won Oscars for black and white cinematography and editing. The Lower East Side is as relatives described though and my parents in their first year in New York and my first year here had an apartment on Vernon Avenue in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. They could have been taking me for a stroll in the carriage during that climatic police chase on the Williamsburg Bridge. Glad that that particular bridge got its due, most people think of the Brooklyn Bridge as THE East River crossing.
The Naked City is a good police yarn made very special by the cinematography and the atmosphere that Jules Dassin creates. It's one for nostalgia lovers.
There's no mystery involved in Jules Dassin's The Naked City because we know immediately that Ted DeCorsia is the guilty party. But it's how they are connected and how DeCorsia is literally brought down that The Naked City plot deals with.
Homicide cops Barry Fitzgerald and Don Taylor are assigned to the case and the plot of the film is pretty much like the police investigation part of a typical Law and Order episode. That is if Law and Order had been done back in 1948 and shoe leather replaced letting your fingers do the walking over a computer. That part of the job is handled by the younger and more vigorous Taylor.
Dassin does make one glaring error though, but without it there would be no climax. Taylor may be a new guy as a detective, but he did pound a beat and was no rookie policeman. Why when he had a rough idea of where DiCorsia was he didn't wait for his backup is a dumb mistake.
The key performance is that of Howard Duff who just keeps lying like a rug even as the police have him dead bang involved in some way in both cases. I've known at least one person like that in my life, a pathological liar who just gets used to the lies, it's a miracle he keeps his stories straight.
The Naked City was the film debut of two beloved character players James Gregory and Walter Burke. Gregory has his one scene with Don Taylor where Gregory is a beat cop who gave him a key lead on DeCorsia's identity and Burke is the second victim and he's killed in the first ten minutes of the film.
But the real star of The Naked City is 1948 New York in which your's truly has no memory of because I was in my first year on the planet. No accident that The Naked City won Oscars for black and white cinematography and editing. The Lower East Side is as relatives described though and my parents in their first year in New York and my first year here had an apartment on Vernon Avenue in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. They could have been taking me for a stroll in the carriage during that climatic police chase on the Williamsburg Bridge. Glad that that particular bridge got its due, most people think of the Brooklyn Bridge as THE East River crossing.
The Naked City is a good police yarn made very special by the cinematography and the atmosphere that Jules Dassin creates. It's one for nostalgia lovers.