Naked City (1948) - Jules Dassin

Ah the good old days when you could just put the word "naked" in your film title to guarantee a generous return. Jules Dassin would earn a reputation in future years as being one of the most consistently good film noir directors reaching his peak while in exile in Europe. He followed up the success of his prison picture Brute Force with this gritty crime film set and shot in New York City. It deserves to be mentioned that Universal released this picture a full year before MGM made On the Town, which likes to lay some sort of claim to being the first studio film shot on location in NYC. Perhaps their argument was that they were the first musical shot there. Dassin's film, much like Brute Force isn't exactly a true film noir. It has all the ingredients at the start though. The film begins at night. A random collage of images showing the city at sleep and the few who are still up and a couple of people who are up to no good. Through this all is an omniscient narrator. Unlike most film noirs this narrator is not a member of the cast, and his opening exposition turns into a running commentary. Far different from the voice of god introductions typically found in the films of Henry Hathaway.

Universal earned a slight reputation for their film noirs of this time, then referred to as Universal International. They produced Robert Siodmak's landmark film The Killers and would later famously butcher Orson Welles Touch of Evil. This is one of those "in between films". A true urban film, and the cast of virtually unrecognizable contract players makes the film take on an extra level of realism, or at least Hollywood's version of it. The only member of the cast to get any sort of star billing is Barry Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald may not be remembered by many today, but he made history when he won a best supporting actor Oscar for Going My Way the same year he was also nominated for a best lead actor Oscar for the same film. Fitzgerald plays the veteran police detective who tells the officer handing him the case "I haven't had a hard day's work since yesterday". He's encountered countless false confessions but he always seems to know where to get his answers, and believes in taking everything step by step.

What is of note is that the new detective assigned to do his leg work (Don Taylor) solves the case but at the same time across town Lt. Muldoon (Fitzgerald) is reaching the same conclusion via his own method. So even at this juncture he always seems to know more than anyone else, and whatever he doesn't know he always seems to be aware of who to ask. What's remarkable in the introduction is that we are shown two different murders taking place. The narrator (producer Mark Hellinger) discusses these murders as if they were no more significant than the late night janitor, the empty theater, or any other random attraction. As viewers though we should know something is coming up here. Jean Dexter is murdered by two men and we can quickly suspect this is going to be central to our story. Therefore we are privilege to some information the cops don't immediately have by knowing that the murder was committed by two men, and that she was drugged before drowned. 

Because this first murder comes into play immediately we have to look at the second one. Jimmy Halloran (Taylor) suspects there might be a coincidence when a body is found in the East River. He simply figures two people killed same night at significantly different times apart. Its a wild hunch, but as viewers we wouldn't mind knowing why this drunk guy at the beginning got knocked out and thrown overboard. Halloran wants to know too and that leads us to Willy Garzah (Ted de Corsia). It is interesting to note the confrontation scene between Halloran and Garzah. We know that earlier these two men met as Garzah was attempting to murder compulsive liar Frank Niles (Howard Duff). However neither we the viewers or Halloran get a good look at Garzah, certainly not enough to know who it is. So when he is confronted in his apartment and told that his former partner who we all know is dead is actually alive and in a hospital he plays it well. Dassin could have told Corsia to play it surprised, at least moderately so. Instead Corsia doesn't bat an eye or remotely fall for it. He isn't a particularly smart criminal but he most certainly isn't a dumb one. The simple fact that anyone found out where he lived lets him know that this person can't be trusted.

Contrary to much of noir nearly all the action in this film takes place in broad daylight. This isn't too hard to explain considering that the film was shot on location in New York, which as already has been pointed out was far from commonplace. Not being on a studio set lighting would be an issue, and if you're worrying about having enough light to shoot at night, then just shoot in the daytime. It gives at least the final scene a more chaotic feel because you know so many people can be witness. However the havoc isn't played up too well. There are no hostages taken by Garzah on the run, or huge crowds following the police. Far from the chaotic daytime rundown in Samuel Fuller's House of Bamboo. What keeps this film noir is basically its detective story. The murders were committed at night, but all the work is done in the day. I'm sure Dassin and everyone else making the film considered this a detective film, because after all film noir is basically an oversimplified tag that has been used too frequently to describe nearly any film with a crime. Still it is a compelling film and among the better works of Dassin.

Grade B +