Well, we missed one installment of shelter-in-place movie because I had a family emergency, but before you know it everything is A-OK and I’m back and picking a film noir for our next screening – specifically The Naked City, the 1948 kinda-documentary-style police procedural by Jules Dassin.
As seems to happen more and more often these days, I thought The Naked City was going to be new to me, but once I saw the opening helicopter shot lavishly taking in lower Manhattan, I knew I had seen it. That’s OK, it’s worth watching twice, if not for a memorable plot, at least for the atmosphere and cinematography, and the location shooting – apparently the film includes over 100 location shots from 1948 New York City, an amazing opportunity to glimpse one of the world’s iconic cities as it was 70+ years ago.
Look. I’m wearing a fedora, you’re wearing a fedora, we’re cool, right?
The Naked City’s plot begins with a late-night murder – a model is chloroformed and then drowned in her bathtub by a pair of unknown men. In the wee morning hours, before the discovery of the body, a very drunk accomplice #2 expresses remorse over the deed, and is shortly thereafter clubbed over the head, killed, and dumped in the East River by accomplice #1, who isn’t having any of this sniveling might-turn-himself-in kind of stuff.
Fussing and flapping in priestly black like a murder of crows
Of course, it can’t be a police procedural if the police aren’t eventually involved, so of course the body is discovered (by a maid) and our protagonistic pair of the weathered Lt. Dan Muldoon and the green Jimmy Halloran are put on the case. As a side note, Barry Fitzgerald’s Muldoon makes this one of my favorite movies, as he proves that an aging short pudgy ugly dude can indeed be a movie star! He is an inspiration to us all.
And that champagne bucket is going to remain empty until you confess, see?
The police quickly zero in on a prime suspect – Frank Niles, inveterate liar and con artist who was clearly far more involved with the murdered Jean Dexter than his fiancée (and her friend) Ruth Morrison had any knowledge of. After being caught in numerous lies by our duo, Niles cops to them, but insists that he wouldn’t lie to the police about anything important, like him being a murderer. The police remain skeptical. Niles turns out to be involved in jewel theft (as was Jean Dexter), for which he is arrested, but he’s not the guy.
And the Russian judge gives him…some antiseptic and a big dose of streptomycin!
With Niles basically cleared, the leads for the police are drying up until some kids making the questionable decision to swim in the East River discover the body of accomplice #2. Muldoon thinks this is unrelated, but Halloran wants to chase it down anyway. Muldoon consents, figuring that the only way to teach a kid how to be a proper police detective is to let him waste his time tracking down cold leads.
Wear your shorts above your belly button and nobody can tell just how fat you are! It’s brilliant!
But in fact this lead turns out to be HOT, and Halloran manages to eventually find Willy Garza at his apartment. Garza draws on Halloran and eventually coldcocks him – he’s too smart to off a copper – before trying to make his escape.
Sanctuary!
Short story short, Garza ends up getting chased up the Williamsburg Bridge (thanks, Wikipedia!) and is shot and falls to his death.
There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.
The End.
I have to be honest – I’m not 100% certain what makes a film film noir proper. There are a lot of elements that they have in common – say crime, lots of nighttime shots, a certain atmosphere, being filmed in B&W between the Bogart Maltese Falcon in 1941 and Welles’ Touch Of Evil in 1958 – but despite the fact that The Naked City incorporates all of these elements, there’s something about a film coming from the perspective of the police being considered noir that seems a bit wrong to me. But of course, The Naked City is universally considered to be noir, and I’m not really the guy to say no. Still, I can’t help thinking specifically of Casablanca, which also hits all of those elements except possibly the atmosphere (but does it really miss the atmosphere?) and which would never be considered noir. I just can’t quite put together what makes a film film noir, but in the end pretty much everybody agrees on which films are and which films aren’t. So it goes.
At any rate, I’m really hoping we can get back to in-person films by Winter Marathon time, because I’ve got a killer Film Noir Marathon lineup not only set up but already in residence on my Blu-Ray shelf. I’m ready. Let us watch.
Cinema 1544: The As-Official-As-It-Gets Site 