Naked City (1948)

Credits: Producer: Mark Hellinger Director: Jules Dassin Cinematographer: William K. Daniels Editing: Paul Weatherwax Screenplay: Albert Maltz, Malvin Wald Music: Miklos Rosa Composer: Alfred Newman

Cast: Barry Fitzgerald: Det. Lt. Dan Muldoon Howard Duff: Frank Niles Dorothy Hart: Ruth Morrison Don Taylor: Det. Jimmy Halloran Frank Conroy: Capt. Donahue Ted de Corsia: Willia Garza House Jameson: Dr. Stoneman Anne Sargent: Mrs. Halloran Adelaide Klein: Mrs. Paula Batory Grover Burgess: Mr. Batory Mark Hellinger: Narrator

Key Concepts/Terms/Figures to Know this Week: Voice-of-God narration; voice-over; documentary noir; on-location shooting; high-grain film; documentary; Robert Flaherty, John Grierson

Interesting Facts

The Naked City won an Oscar for Best Cinematography and Best Editing. It was also nominated for Best Screenplay.

The Naked City is based on an actual murder case from 1926, called the “Dot King” murder. As in the film, a young model, who was “kept” by an older, wealthy, and married man, was killed by a group of male thieves with whom she associated. The film’s screenplay writer, Malvin Wald, spent a month in New York researching the case, as well as interviewing police officers and  attending police school seminars, in order to do research for the film.

The film’s producer, Mark Hellinger, specialized in crime film. He also produced The Roaring Twenties (1939), The Killers (1946), and Brute Force (1946). The Naked City was his last film; he died of a heart attack only a few weeks before it was released. He was 41.

Many of the film’s actors—with the notable exceptions of Fitzgerald, Duff, Dorothy Hart, and Don Taylor-- were drawn from New York’s theaters and radio shows rather than Hollywood.

117 of the film’s 121 scenes were shot on location in New York City.

The film’s cinematography is in part inspired by the photographs of famed tabloid photographer, Arthur Felling (a.k.a. Weegee), who served as a photographic consultant on the film.

Critical Commentary

The American film industry might have gotten its start in the shabby, claustrophobic East Coast studios of Thomas Edison, but by the time 1948’s Naked City was released, the industry’s reliance upon Hollywood sets made it fairly risky to shoot a film anywhere else. As Naked City’s morbidly bemused narrator notes early on, the movie was shot entirely in New York City, and though character actor Barry Fitzgerald is given first billing in the credits, New York City is Naked City’s real star.” –Nathan Rubin, The Onion

“The docunoir’s conventional elements—true stories, location shooting, use of non-actors and high-grain film, voice-of-god narration—by their very difference make us aware of classical Hollywood narrative’s contrived realism, which depends on such things as continuity editing, shot-reverse-shot sequences, and third-person point of view. In the process, they threaten that style’s effectiveness by implicitly showing it to be a fashioned, contrived mode, its reality not so much an extension of our world as of a conventional cinematic world which might or might not speak to our situation.”—J.P. Telotte, Voices in the Dark: the Narrative Patterns of Film Noir.  Urbana: The Univ. of Illinois P, 1989. 159.

Discussion Questions

1. The Naked City has been praised repeatedly for its realistic effects, both in terms of its cinematography and narrative. Please single out one technique used by the film (such as its voice-over, use of non-actors, location shooting, cinematography) you see as central to this realism and discuss how it works in the film.
2. Many critics have argued that the film’s main “character” is New York city itself. Do you agree with this assessment? If so, why?
3. Naked City has also been classified as a “police procedural film”—a film, that is, which tries to provide a detailed and realistic look at the daily activities of the police. Discuss one scene in which this attempt is particularly noteworthy.
4. Like many docunoirs of this period (though certainly not all), Naked City provides an extremely positive, even heroic, view of the police force. What, specifically, does the film suggest about New York’s police force? Do you think this positive view diminishes from the film’s realism, as some critics have argued?
5. Naked City is a curious blend of humor, sentimentality, and gritty realism. How does the film manage to achieve this balance of tones/atmospheres? Can you identify one scene in particular that is characterized by this balance?
6. Unlike the voice-over of most docunoirs (including Call Northside 777 and He Walked by Night), the one in The Naked City is not a “voice-of-god” narration. How would you describe it, then? You may wish to focus particularly on the opening scenes of the film as you answer this question.
7. The opening minutes of the film are often praised as among Naked City’s most extraordinary. Why do you think this is?
8. Do you find Naked City or Double Indemnity to be the more compelling crime film? Please be specific in your answer, defending your choice of film based on a response to cinematographic or narrative elements.
9. Please single out ONE observation made by Andrew Spicer, in the chapter on film noir you read last week, and apply it to your reading of The Naked City.