The Naked City

I've been making an effort to expose myself to more classic noir films recently, which brought me to The Naked City.  I went into this one relatively blind; I hadn't heard anything about the film (aside from hearing that is was a noir) and I didn't recognize anyone involved in it.  In fact, the only thing I was relatively sure of with this movie was that it probably had nothing to do with the first paperback collection of The Tick.

Nothing except prominent Viewmaster use, of course.

The Naked City begins with a surprisingly self-aware voice-over that points out that you are a viewer and this is a movie.  I suppose that self-awareness isn't a bad thing, since this movie isn't about Skynet, but it's kind of annoying.  The narration quickly slips into a more conventional documentary style, similar to the narration in old-timey instructional videos.  As the narrator guides the film from a bird's eye view of New York City down to the teeming streets, the audience becomes witnesses to the murder of Jean Dexter by two unknown men.  The film then focuses on her murder investigation by the experienced Detective Lieutenant Muldoon (Barry Fitzgerald) and the young Detective Halloran (Don Taylor).  Muldoon does most of the thinking, Halloran does the footwork, and the two begin to turn up clues in this seemingly unmotivated murder.

Above: four men discuss an important case, while one silently farts

That's pretty much it.  This isn't a steamy noir so much as it is a conventional police procedural with stunning cinematography.  That doesn't make it bad, but --- like Law & Order episodes --- it does make it pretty boring to summarize.  And like most police procedurals, this story relies more on the way the story is told than the characters involved.

As far as the acting goes, it's all right, but it has gotten a little corny with age.  Barry Fitzgerald plays a wise Irish cop quite well, but he doesn't show anything more than mild concern for the case.  Don Taylor gets a bit more character development, but showing that he is reluctant to beat his child on his wife's command doesn't exactly make him a deep character.

It does make him a wimp, though

Howard Duff was far more entertaining, but the reasons for that are primarily due to how idiotic his character was.  Ted de Corsia gave the film's best performance as the desperate killer, but even his character is surprisingly shallow.

Detectives detect, coaches slouch, and athletes...scissor?

More than any actor, the cinematography stands out today.  While there were other movies made on location at the time, it was still pretty rare.  The Naked City succeeds in having this fictional story play out in the most authentic-looking New York I have seen on film in this period. 

Starring...New York!

It's not just the camera work that makes the city come alive.  The annoying narration manages to give a documentary feel to the story and the occasional voice-over in crowd scenes (while terribly manhandled) was a cool idea that impressed upon me how busy the city really is.

Example crowd voice-over: "He needs a gun to compensate for running like a girl"

Despite enjoying the overall look of the film, I didn't particularly care for director Jules Dassin's film.  The Naked City seems to be an exercise in style; there are a number of dramatic shots incorporating the cityscape, as well as the choice to maintain bookend narration that differed slightly from the story narration.  I have to admit that the movie is visually stunning at times.

Unfortunately, it is only "at times."  For every fantastic visual, there is at least ten minutes of uninspired shots.  I wouldn't pick on the movie for this, if it wasn't for the fact that the story is so vanilla.  There's no crazy twists, there are no real surprises, and we have no reason to support the good guys, aside from the fact that they are pleasant.  When you combine an uninspired story with melodrama, corny dialogue, and outdated production values (it is shocking how often dialogue was obviously recorded over a scene), it becomes very hard to recommend this movie.  On the other hand, the occasionally great camera shots are a treat and the film's closing line, "There are eight million stories in the naked city.  This has been one of them," is pretty fantastic.  That's not enough to overcome my apathy toward the story, but at least you get something of value for watching The Naked City.

And, because the narration reminded me of it, please enjoy this instructional dating video, circa 1950.

The Killing

When most people think of Stanley Kubrick, they usually think of his later works, like 2001, A Clockwork Orange, and The Shining.  That's fair enough, I suppose; by that point in his career, Kubrick was acknowledged as a film genius and was allowed to get genuinely weird.  While not as inventive or visually interesting as those films, The Killing is very important in Kubrick's career.  While it wasn't very successful, this was the first time Kubrick worked with a professional cast and crew.  This film also attracted the attention of Kirk Douglas and MGM, and those partnerships lead to his breakthrough films, Paths of Glory and Spartacus.  Of course, you don't have to care about the film in its historical context.  It's a nice film noir, either way.

After being released from prison, Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) was a man with a plan.  As much as he would have liked to live the quiet life with his fiancee (Coleen Gray), he wants to pull one last job --- a high risk, high reward robbery --- before they marry.  He plans to do the impossible and rob a racetrack, despite the armed policemen, employees, high security, and thousands of witnesses.  To pull off the job, he needs a police officer (Ted de Corsia), a racetrack bartender (Joe Sawyer), a racetrack bookkeeper (Jay C. Flippen), and a racetrack cashier (Elisha Cook, Jr.); these are the men that are need-to-know, and they need to know each other and their roles in the overall plan.  Clay also hires two other men, on a strictly no-need-to-know basis; they are a sharpshooter (Timothy Carey) and an enormously burly chess aficionado (Kola Kwariani).  The plan (which I won't detail for you) is flawless.  However, even the best plans can be foiled by small mistakes.

Before I get into the things I liked about The Killing, I have to get a couple of things off my chest first.  The narration in this movie is godawful.  It is on par with Harrison Ford's intentionally bad narration for the theatrical cut of Blade Runner.  It makes the movie feel like an episode of Dragnet, only without any idea who the narrator is or how he came by his information.  According to film lore, the narration was tacked on by  the movie studio, and this was one of the final straws before Kubrick would start demanding complete control over his films.  In the long run, I guess things turned out okay, but it's still really terrible.  The score is pretty bombastic, too.  It would have been better used in a gladiator fight instead of scenes showing anonymous characters placing horse racing bets.  And the bit with the dog, towards the end, is a little too cutesy for this movie, I think.

The first thing you're going to notice about The Killing is that it is not told in chronological order.  It's not as disjointed as Pulp Fiction (which it influenced), but many key scenes are told and retold from the perspective of another character.  The camera work isn't as flashy as it is in other Kubrick movies, but it is one of the film's strong points.  Normally, filmmakers use a quick establishing shot to tell the audience where the scene is taking place, and then it will cut to mid-shots and close-ups of the actors in the scene.  Kubrick holds his establishing shots longer than usual in this film, allowing the audience to feel like more of an actual observer.  The pace is brisk and the tone is brutal.  This is classic film noir, complete with a tough "hero" in Clay, a femme fatale (Marie Windsor), and a tough as nails ending.  The ending is a fantastic cap to a good movie, complete with a great last line of dialogue: "Eh, what's the difference?"  It might not sound like much, but it fits the movie perfectly.

Sterling Hayden was good in the lead role, matching the tone of the film with his tone of voice.  The movie doesn't spend much time developing characters, so most of the supporting cast was just doing their job.  Elisha Cook, Jr. (who I love in Bogart movies) did a great job as the brow-beaten and pathetic cashier.  His final stand is one of the best parts of the film.  His wife, played by Marie Windsor, is one of the foulest femme fatales I have seen so far.  Most of the time, there's some ambiguity with how good or bad they are, but she is rotten to the core.  Oddly enough, the two no-need-to-know guys that stuck out for me.  I thought that Timothy Carey did a very good job with the limited time he was given, although I wish his downfall didn't directly connect to his racist remarks.  I also liked the use of real-life professional wrestler and chess fanatic, Kola Kwariani; he was disgustingly hairy, and his accent was almost too thick to understand, but he is the most believable thug I have seen in a 1950s film.

Do you like crime movies?  Do you like noir?  Do you like tough guys in movies?  If so, check this movie out.  It's not flawless, but the crime is well-executed and the film itself has no remorse for any of the characters.  They might have made a killing with this heist, but that's not where the killing ends.