The Naked City (1948)
Amid a semi-documentary portrait of New York and its people, Jean Dexter, attractive blonde model, is murdered in her apartment and homicide detectives Dan Muldoon and Jimmy Halloran 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 very rapid manhunt sequence. All filmed on location. (imdb)
Cast and Information
Directed By: Jules Dassin
Written By: Albert Maltz, Malvin Wald
Starring: Don Taylor, Nehemiah Persoff, Howard Duff, John Marley, Kathleen Freeman, James Gregory, Barry Fitzgerald, Ted de Corsia, John Randolph, Frank Conroy, Dorothy Hart, Beverly Bayne
Country: USA
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The Naked City belongs to 42 collections
1. Criterion Collection (public: moderated by caffe - 163 stars)
2. Film Noir (public: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 55 stars)
3. They Shoot Pictures 250 Quintessential Noir Films (public: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 38 stars)
4. National Film Registry (public: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 30 stars)
5. Netflix Instant (public: moderated by somnivore - 29 stars)
6. Academy Award - Oscar - ALL Best Picture, Directing, Acting & Screenplay Nominees (public - 22 stars)
7. Oscar: Best Cinematography (public: moderated by CCLZA - 20 stars)
8. They Shoot Pictures' Recommended Viewing (public: moderated by Cinephile - 19 stars)
9. Doubling The Canon (public - 13 stars)
10. Films available in HD (public: moderated by kubricksucks - 12 stars)
11. International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers (public: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 10 stars)
12. List: Essential Noirs in The Rough Guide to Film Noir's Canon (public: moderated by KasperL - 10 stars)
13. 1,000 Noir Films: They Shot Dark Pictures, Didn't They? (public: moderated by lisa- - 9 stars)
14. Whodunit (public: moderated by iceblox - 8 stars)
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16. Best of Classic Old Hollywood (pre-70s) (public: moderated by 90sCoffee - 6 stars)
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19. The Lost Picture Show Podcast (public: moderated by Coheed - 2 stars)
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30. Criterion Collection (Blu-ray and 4K) (private: PepeCamello - 3 stars)
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| Stars | User | Rating | |
| 2 |  |
Moribunny | 43 30% |
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Big disappointment from Dassin. "All filmed on location" - big whoop... just goes to show what happens when you rely on a gimmick instead of good material. The novelty wears off after a couple of years and the film's true worth is exposed.
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| 2 |  |
Alex Watkins | 2 15% |
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Not a bad movie, but not exactly thrilling either. As strengths, it's got some really great on-location photography - stark, clean black-and-white imagery that is pleasant to look at and highlights the city of New York, and a fairly engaging murder plot. But the weak narration (great bookends, really unnecessary otherwise), explicit focus on police procedural instead of those involved in the crime, and strict adherence to a straightforward narrative drag it down. Worth seeing, but not much else.
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| 1 |  |
MartinTeller | 70 35% |
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A decent police procedural from decent filmmaker Jules Dassin. To be fair, he's got a good eye... the photography sports some good ideas, and I like the use of real locations. But the movie is hampered by weak acting, uninteresting characters, and especially the annoying narration.
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| 1 |  |
Actionberg | 70 49% |
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This dives headfirst into innovative narrative technique and manages to have some success, and it's really interesting to consider the rather neutral position the narrator takes with regard to the murder case. In the climax, he's actively telling the bad guy how he can cleanly get away, and sounds downright dissatisfied that he's too stupid to pull it off. The cinematography trumps all else; New York City is arresting once again. The story tends to drag after a while but it always looks nice.
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| 1 |  |
Nathan S | 4 74% |
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It's no surprise that Jules Dassin, already tuned into the pulse of world cinema in 1948, would go on to international success, because this neorealist noir is very unlike other American films of the time. A spectacular mix of adept composition and live-from-the-scene energy, it dwells on the hard details of investigative methodology, but frequently and pleasantly includes small character digressions, narrated in a wry docudramatic tone which I find less annoying and more humorous.
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| 1 |  |
PeaceAnarchy | 82 67% |
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Not a great movie as it has some clear flaws, but it's still pretty entertaining and well shot. The aerial shots are especially stunning and the detective story central to the film plays out quite well. The main problem for me was some of the acting was really silly, almost making it seem like a parody at times, and the narration, while amusing, was really out of place. It's almost like Dassin was going for two completely divergent styles and they don't really mesh together all that well.
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| 1 |  |
frankswild | 80 75% |
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Aside from it just being a pretty great crime/noir movie, I found the odd narration to be strangely endearing.
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| 1 |  |
Anomaly | 73 55% |
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Suffers from the onslaught of narration throughout, only occasionally giving us a gem of a line and mostly sounding like something out of an Ed Wood film. Interesting idea, bad execution. What does work is the documentary-inspired tackling of a police procedural, showing us not-so glamorous details and mundane moments mixed with plot-driving revelations. New York is also photographed quite beautifully. A bit of a mixed bag, really.
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| 1 |  |
tonydal | 70 40% |
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Seemed like two movie ideas that never quite converged: a police procedural vs. wry commentary on modern urban life.
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| 1 |  |
KasperL | 80 86% |
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Some of the humor was on the silly side but in a charming way. At times the narration was a bit much, but mostly it works, and the film kept my interest as a procedural. Fitzgerald is good.
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| 1 |  |
dunbar | 86 87% |
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Interesting that after a scrolling through the reviews that the narration in this movie seemed a sticking point for why people didn't rate this higher. I found the narration to be top notch, highly entertaining and a great way to drive both the story and compliment the city imagery (which is beautifully shot). Sure it leaves little to the imagination, but I didn't expect a huge mystery, I enjoyed being led along. It was engrossing and the last narrated lines topped that off brilliantly.
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| 1 |  |
deep_green | 85 94% |
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Probably the most engaging police procedural I've seen. Astonishing in it's dedication to down to earth representation of peoples and places, it's barely marked by any trace of overt generic convention, and, in this, achieves a feeling of real immediacy. This was a riveting, continually surprising, easily recommendable watch.
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| 1 |  |
buddhalou | 70 49% |
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If you're a fan of any of the metric ton of police procedural shows that dominate broadcast television these days, this is probably required viewing for you. Notable for the cinematography, but the writing - particularly the voice-over bits - is a little absurd at times.
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| Average Percentile 61.34% from 504 Ratings |  |