(no opening title screen)
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The Naked City (1948)
In director Jules Dassin's hard-boiled urban docu-drama
crime/noir film - this was the first studio feature shot on location
in New York City - and the film that inspired the 50's ABC-TV series
- with its famed ending quote delivered by Hellinger as an epitaph
for the murdered woman: "There Are EIGHT MILLION Stories In
The Naked City - This Has Been ONE Of Them":
- the opening scene with aerial views of New York
City - accompanied by narration from the film's producer, journalist
Mark Hellinger (who conducted six months of interviews with the
NYPD to gather accurate details and characterizations): "Ladies
and gentlemen - the motion picture you are about to see is called
The Naked City. My name is Mark Hellinger. I was in charge of its
production. And I may as well tell you frankly that it's a bit
different from most films you've ever seen. It was written by Albert
Maltz and Malvin Wald, photographed by William Daniels and directed
by Jules Dassin. As you see, we're flying over an island. A city.
A particular city. And this is a story of a number of people -
and a story also of the city itself. It was not photographed in
a studio. Quite the contrary. Barry Fitzgerald, our star Howard
Duff, Dorothy Hart, Don Taylor, Ted de Corsia and the other actors
played out their roles on the streets, in the apartment houses,
in the skyscrapers of New York itself. And along with them, a great
many thousand New Yorkers played out their roles also. This is
the city as it is. Hot summer pavements, the children at play,
the buildings in their naked stone, the people, without makeup.
Well, let's begin our story this way. It's 1:00 in the morning
on a hot summer night..."
- on a hot summer NYC night, the brutal murder scene
(seen briefly in shadows) - a knock-out by chloroform and then a
bathtub drowning; the narrator casually noted: "And while some
people work, others are rounding off an evening of relaxation. And
still another is at the close of her life" - the victim was
attractive and promiscuous 26 year-old, unmarried blonde fashion
model Jean Dexter; it was determined by homicide investigators that
it was "No accident. No suicide. Bruises on her throat, shoulders
and arms. Those slight burns around her mouth and nose were caused
by chloroform. She was anesthetized, after a struggle, then dumped
into the tub alive... the white foam around her mouth. It's proof
she drowned"
- the manhunt for the killer(s), led by veteran cop
Det. Lt. Dan Muldoon (Barry Fitzgerald), and conducted by Donahue
(Frank Conroy) and newbie partner Det. Jimmy Halloran (Don Taylor)
- the emotional sequence at the City Morgue when Jean's
estranged Polish parents - the Batorys (Adelaide Klein and Grover
Burgess) - identified her body, and then later mourned her death:
("Oh, what a heartache. You nurse a child, you raise it, pet
it, you love it, and it ends like this") - the narrator intoned
(voice-over):
"Another day, another ball of fire rising in the summer sky. The
city is quiet now, but it will soon be pounding with activity. This
time yesterday, Jean Dexter was just another pretty girl, but now she's
the marmalade on 10,000 pieces of toast"
- the tense interrogation scene when Muldoon confronted
deceitful Frank Niles (Howard Duff), the victim's ex-boyfriend, to
reveal that the deceased's current boyfriend was Dr. Lawrence Stoneman
(House Jameson) (aka "Mr. Henderson"), who was blackmailed
into robbery schemes
- the confrontation between Halloran and the killer
- murder suspect Willie Garzah (an ex-wrestler aka Willie the Harmonica)
(Ted de Corsia); Garzah held Halloran at gunpoint before 'rabbit-punching'
him and fleeing ("All I need to do is put you to sleep. Then
I'm off. Try and find me. This is a great big, beautiful city. Just
try and find me. That was a rabbit punch, copper. And it's strictly
illegal")
- and the film's memorable, thrilling, and heart-pounding
climax in which Garzah ran through a graveyard and the Lower East
Side tenements, into a market, and then on a pedestrian walk when
he bumped into a blind man's guide dog, he and shot and killed the
attacking animal - and his location was revealed; he raced onto the
Williamsburg Bridge where he was cornered; now wounded in the left
arm by gunfire, he climbed to the very top of the bridge tower -
and fell to his death after being hit by more police bullets
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Ending: Death of Cornered and Wounded
Murder Suspect Willie Garzah on Williamsburg Bridge
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- the ending epilogue, similar to the opening prologue:
"It's 1:00 in the morning again. And this is the city. And these
are the lights that a child, born to the name of Batory, hungered
for. Her passion has been played out now. Her name, her face, her
history were worth five cents a day for six days. Tomorrow a new
case will hit the headlines. Yet some will remember Jean Dexter.
She won't be entirely forgotten. Not entirely. Not altogether. There
are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of
them"
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Shadowy Murder of Jean Dexter in Her Apartment
The Discovery of the Murder Victim in a Bathtub by the
Shocked Housekeeper Martha Swenson (Virginia Mullen)
Medical Examination Results Given to Muldoon (on right): "No
accident. No suicide"
Two Detectives (l to r): Rookie Halloran and Donahue
The Victim's Grieving Parents
One of the Suspects Questioned by Muldoon: The Murder
Victim's Ex-Boyfriend Frank Niles
Detective Halloran's Confrontation with Killer Willie
Garzah
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