The following is my entry in The Film Noir Blogathon, being hosted Aug. 12-14, 2016 by Quiggy at The Midnite Drive-In. Click on the above banner, and read bloggers’ lively critiques of a variety of film noir movies!
Cry of the City is a mesmerizing film-noir about Martin Rome (Richard Conte), a criminal currently recovering from bullet wounds after having a shoot-out with a cop that left the cop dead. On the other side of the law is Police Lieutenant Candella (Victor Mature), a cop who is singularly obsessed with bringing Rome down. The police suspect that Rome carried out a jewel robbery with Teena (Debra Paget), a young girl who briefly visited Rome in the prison ward. The robbery is yet unsolved, and Candella thinks that if he can track down Teena, he can resolve the robbery and end Rome’s crime career in one fell swoop.
The plot sounds cliched, yet the superlative acting, stark photography, gritty screenplay (co-written by an uncredited Ben Hecht), and taut direction by noir veteran Robert Siodmak (Criss Cross) result in a riveting tale. The story is presented most unglamorously, showing how both the villains and the good guys suffer.
Rome acts and talks like a cool crook but is frequently brought to heel by characters even shadier than he is — a self-serving lawyer (Berry Kroeger), a very mannish female masseuse (Hope Emerson). Candella puts himself and his partner (Fred Clark) through the wringer trying to catch Rome, and the movie lightly hints that Candella doesn’t completely act in virtuous-cop mode — that it might be a feather in his cap to bring down this major hoodlum.
The problem with a lot of film-noir is that it gets lost in stylishness at the expense of plausibility. Because Cry of the City takes the time to add some shades of nuance to its characters and settings, the viewer ends up having a stake in its outcome — which is deliciously delivered, by the way, right up to its haunting final shot. I’m for any movie that treats moviegoers like thinking adults, and Cry of the City fits the bill quite satisfyingly.
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Nicely done!
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Awesome, I need to see this one. Boy, was Victor Mature the looker of his day! Coincidentally, he was hot-n-heavy with Rita Hayworth, the star of my film noir favorite Gilda (which the hyper-talented Ben Hecht also co-wrote, uncredited) before her marriage to Orson Welles…
Love your blog and look forward to exploring further!
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Great writeup! I too rate this movie highly, with or without the Greek subtitles.
Hm. I wonder why I didn’t know about this blogathon?
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I’m not a huge Victor Mature fan, but I think his stoic mien would lend itself well to noir.
So many noir plots sound cliched, or overly convoluted, when you write them down in plain terms, don’t they? And yet, toss in some murky atmosphere, complex characters, and snappy dialog, and they get elevated to something wonderful. The good ones, anyway 😉
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Darn it! I clicked on the movie you embedded, just to see what the Greek subtitles would look like. But I got caught up in the story! I have to reluctantly carry on with my day, but I’ll be back to finish watching this film.
And great post too, by the way! 🙂
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Thanks! Sorry about the “Greek” version, but it was the only one I could find online.
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The perfect noir leaves you feeling like you’ve been kicked in the gut. That’s “Cry of the City”. Excellent review of a genuine classic.
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Robert Siodmak’s name keeps coming up with this blogathon. I recognize the name, but I am much more familiar with his brother, Curt. Mainly because of the plethora of sci-fi movies I’ve seen. This one sounds interesting.
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I loved Siodmak’s ‘Criss Cross’…you’ve now convinced me to take a look at ‘Cry of the City’. I too like movies that treat their audiences like thinking adults, and it always bugs me when a noir wraps up with a happy, ‘all smiles and laughs’ ending. It sounds like this one is just the opposite.
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