Review of The Naked City (1948) by Ben C — 17 Sep 2008

"The Naked City" is the first film I've seen by American director Jules Dassin (often thought to be a Frenchman because of his name). It was, for the most part, what I had expected to see, but what I hadn't counted on was the way in which the photography, from the first shot to the last, excited me, drew me in, made me want to see more. There's something about the quality of the images in "The Naked City" that works as well as a great score, or a great performance by an actor. Perhaps it's the city itself (New York), which has a long reputation of love affairs with the camera. Maybe it has something to do with the film being shot on location, at a time when that was still somewhat unusual. But most likely the power of the images has to do with the way they're presented - alongside a narration, which continues throughout the picture. I've felt before that voice-overs always have a very specific effect on an image, automatically adding a certain tension and drama, even when the voice-over is unnecessary or badly done. At the worst, the tension created can feel pretentious or overbearing; at best, it can feel like the first ten minutes of "The Naked City".

Our narrator (Mark Hellinger, one of the film's producers) sets things up for us, describing, over gorgeous night shots of the city, what New York is doing at one am. The characters we'll be with for the rest of the film are all shown here, but in such a way that you don't think twice about them until you see them again later on. They're just several out of the many thousands of people in the city, a sort of frame of mind that is present throughout the movie, especially in the now famous closing line. Shot in the streets, with real New Yorkers as the extras, "The Naked City" is sort of like American Neorealism, though, in a truly American way, dealing with sensational, romantic material, unlike Rosselini or De Sica.

"The Naked City", plot-wise, is a typical police procedural, and it begins like this: Jean Dexter (never seen and never credited), a beautiful young would-be socialite is murdered, and an investigation begins. I won't go too much further, because, of course, the unraveling of the thread is the best part about pictures like this. I will say that Barry Fitzgerald is wonderful as Detective Lieutenant Dan Muldoon. The rest of the cast is good as well, as good as they need to be in a film like this. The real star here is New York, like I said, perfectly photographed from start to finish by William H. Daniels (who also shot Erich von Stroheim's 1922 "Foolish Wives").

In short, "The Naked City" is great, everything you'd want in a crime picture: the city, the 40's, crooked men and dizzy dames. You'll watch it and love it because it's a hell of a lot of fun, but chances are you'll remember it for its images.