The Naked City
Director: Jules Dassin
Year Released: 1948
Rating: 2.0
Dated police procedural that takes you by the hand to show you how crimes committed in New York City are never unsolved, and that cops love their families and refuse to employ capital punishment to correct their children's behavior, and that criminals steal from the people they love and lie endlessly to cover it up. The documentary-approach does not work in its favor - had it just told the story itself, without resorting to phony explanations delivered by questionable actors, I might have enjoyed it slightly more. It's hardly as mean as Dassin's hard-edged Rififi, and about as visually dynamic as Dragnet.
