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Naked City - Criterion Collection | 
 enlarge | Director: Jules Dassin
Actors: Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Duff, Dorothy Hart, Don Taylor, Frank Conroy
Studio: Criterion
Category: DVD
List Price: $39.95
Buy New: $24.94
You Save: $15.01 (38%)
New (40) Used (9) from $24.94
Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 10327
Format: Black & White, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 96 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: IMEDCC1687D
UPC: 715515022927
EAN: 0715515022927
ASIN: B000M2E3GI
Theatrical Release Date: March 4, 1948
Release Date: March 20, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 03/20/2007
Amazon.com
"Ladies and gentlemen, the motion picture you are about to see is called The Naked City." With a helicopter shot slowly closing in on Manhattan, producer Mark Hellinger's staccato narration introduces the film ("It was not photographed in a studio . . .") and continues throughout like a documentary commentator with a literary flair. It's a conceit that serves this police story nicely, giving the patina of realism to this deglamorized look at the work of the homicide squad. Barry Fitzgerald reigns over the film with his jovial good humor as a veteran detective investigating the murder of a high-living model. He has few clues and fewer suspects, until he cracks the story of big-talking Howard Duff and throws some light on his shady past. Jules Dassin, who had just come off the shadowy, expressionist Brute Force, peels away those flourishes to shoot in a straightforward style influenced by the Italian neo-realists and the contemporary American newsreels. The film is rich in supporting performances by soon-to-be-famous character actors--Arthur O'Connell, James Gregory, Paul Ford--but the city itself becomes the film's most vivid character. Shot entirely on location in New York City, the distinctive cityscape looms over practically every shot and injects the film with a defining sense of place (cinematographer William Daniels won an Oscar for his work). You can see the roots of The French Connection in the bustling city scenes and the exciting foot chase finale on an elevated walkway. --Sean Axmaker
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| Customer Reviews: Read 24 more reviews...
 vanished city January 2, 2009
Paul C. Lewis (U.K.)
All the previous reviews cover the general outline of this film noir so I can't really add much there. However, one of the main reasons why I rate this movie so highly is the fact that it's a rare opportunity to see New York City in its now ledgendary heyday of the 40's and 50's before the modernist movement wrecked that unsurpassed skyline etc. You even get a quick shot at the interior of the Roxy, the greatest movie palace ever built, before it was shamelessly torn down in the 60's.
This film was made in the year I was born and I regret I was never able to see the city as it was then, sure there are many improvements but there will never be another period in the history of NYC to match this one.
The Naked City June 25, 2007
John Farr
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Shot entirely on location in 1940s Manhattan, this semi-documentary police procedural offers a day-to-day look at the life of the Big Apple, its varied denizens, and the routine of two cops--old hand Fitzgerald (who quietly steals the film) and the dutiful but still green Taylor--out to catch a killer. Dassin handles the action with matter-of-fact directness, and soon fast-talking Frank Niles (Howard Duff) has raised their interest. But the great achievement of "City" is its verisimilitude of character and place, and a final chase scene on the Williamsburg Bridge that will steal your breath away. There might be "8 million stories in the naked city," but this sinister crime drama was the first--and still the best. Trivia note:this film was said to have inspired "Dragnet".
 Did I see the same film? June 23, 2007
Nobody
10 out of 25 found this review helpful
This has developed a rep as being a landmark movie, but somehow I managed to miss it. Now that I've seen it I don't understand the praise at all. The Irish affected Fitzgerald barely carries the lead, and the rest of the acting is simply putrid, horribly ham handed. I watched the scene with the mother identifying her dead daughter, and all I could think of is that she had another job that afternoon and had to emote quick and flee. The preceding scene where the young cop comes home to handle spanking his kid is completely pointless, and the acting by husband and wife is soap opera quality at best, just awful.
It gets worse, there's a narrative track would embarrass a "Dragnet" episode, syrupy strings in the soundtrack, and dialogue that often wanders off point, making it difficult to follow. All the side bits just waste time, the action doesn't move from scene to scene in a form which builds any sense of continuity. I couldn't even finish watching it, so I guess I'll never know who Mcillicuddy was.
PS: Yes, I know this was 1948. But that's pretty late in the day to make something this inept. There were plenty of decent films being made by that time, no excuse.
The architype of police procedurals - and, film noir to boot June 4, 2007
Former Rater (Nowhere)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
A murder.
The evidence.
The investigation.
Red herrings.
Resolution.
This film's DNA runs through all that followed - from Dragnet to Law & Order.
Buy this film if you love 1948 NYC and Irish detectives - a great film!
 One of Eight Million Stories May 7, 2007
C. C. Black (Princeton, NJ USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This landmark film, energetically directed by Jules Dassin not long before the McCarthy witch-hunts forced him out of the U.S., deserves the typically classy Criterion treatment. As we have now come to expect of all Criterion versions, the print has been beautifully restored and meticulously annotated. Movies of any decade do not hold up equally well; "Naked City" is flawed by producer Mark Hellinger's narration--often hammy and too much "on-the-nose"--and some dated performances. On the other hand, the police procedural still draws you in, the music score is superb, and the noirish yet documentary-quality of post-war New York City makes for a wondrous time-capsule. (Thank God the move was shot in black and white. Color would have ruined it.) Like the place and people it captures, ""The Naked City" is an imperfect but very good movie.
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