#380: DASSIN, Jules: The Naked City (1948)

DASSIN, Jules (United States)
The Naked City [1948]
Spine #380
DVD


"There are eight million stories in the Naked City," as the narrator immortally states at the close of this breathakingly vivid film — and this is one of them. Master noir craftsman Jules Dassin and newspaperman-cum-producer Mark Hellinger's dazzling police procedural, The Naked City, was shot on location in New York. As influenced by Italian neorealism as American crime fiction, this double Academy Award winner remains a benchmark for naturalism in noir, living and breathing in the promises and perils of the Big Apple, from its lowest depths to its highest skyscrapers.

96 minutes
Black & White
Monaural
1:33:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2007
Director/Writers


Story by Malvin Wald.
Screenplay by Albert Maltz and Wald.
Jules Dassin was 37 when he directed The Naked City.

Other Dassin films in the Collection:

#383: Brute Force (1947)
#273: Thieves' Highway (1949)
#274: Night And The City (1950)
#115: Rififi (1955)

The Film

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Sixteen-page booklet featuring an essay by Luc Sante, and Notes of Chase Sequence — from producer Mark Hellinger to Dassin.

Commentary

By screenwriter Wald.

Video interview

With NYU film professor Dana Polan.

Analysis

Of the film’s New York locations by Celluloid Skyline author James Sanders.

Footage

Of Dassin from his 2004 appearance at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Stills gallery

Theatrical trailer

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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