Cry of the City

Cry of the City (1948)

Runtime: 95 minutes

Directed by: Robert Sidomak

Starring: Victor Mature, Richard Conte, Fred Clark, Shelley Winters, Debra Paget

From: 20^th Century Fox

It was time to clear even more from my DVR and see some film noir so I went with something recorded two months ago from the FXM channel… specifically, during their off-hours when they are in Retro mode, meaning older movies shown unedited & commercial-free. It’s a noir directed by Robert Sidomak starring Victor Mature, Richard Conte, Shelley Winters & Debra Paget where Mature is a cop yet for much of his life has been friends with the Rome family, even though a member of that family, Marty (played by Conte) is a criminal who is in the hospital because he got involved in a shootout where he killed a cop.

One bizarre detail is that this was Paget’s movie debut and played the girlfriend of Conte, even though she was FOURTEEN at the time. Uh… did people know what her real age was? She was described by Conte’s character as “a child” and I know she was in other films in the next few years where she played someone presumably of adult age but it’s really weird. After all, early on she and Conte kissed on the lips early on and as she looked quite young, it was all “ewwww” to me. Then again, both Winters and Paget ended up having small roles in this anyhow.

Even with that rather irregular element, this was a very good film noir. What performances from the main cast, although an amusing part was played by Betty Garde as a middle-aged nurse who was on the gruff side yet was more than competent at her job. However, THE favorite was from Hope Emerson as someone who was part of the scheme. She was a very tall actress at 6 foot 2 (188 centimeters) and was at least 220 pounds (100 KG) so talk about an imposing figure-and that was the sort of lady she portrayed here. She definitely was a gruff dame.

The plot involves plenty of intrigue involving a jewel robbery along with the relationship between the two lead characters that were part of the same Italian-American neighborhood. This had many of the hallmarks of the genre yet the family aspect and how Marty is still close to his blood despite how some loathe how he turned out-although his younger brother Tony idolizes him-helps make this stand out. Yet don’t think that the inclusion of family means this isn’t a tough and dark noir, as it actually is.

There are some high-quality setpieces directed rather well and this did make me regret not streaming this when it was on the Criterion Channel late last year. As of now it’s only available for those that have DirecTV or Fubo, at least legally… otherwise it isn’t that hard to track down if you want to go that route. It’s not one of the must-see genre examples yet is one to keep in mind for those that have at least an interest in noir.