Cry of the City (1948)

Director:

Robert Siodmak

Writers:

Richard Murphy (screenplay)
Henry Edward Helseth (novel)
(more)

Release Date:

29 September 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Romance

Plot:

Police Lieut. Candella, longtime friend of the Rome family, walks a tightrope in the case of cop-killer Martin Rome.

Plot Keywords:

Hospital | Murder | Escape | Killer | Italian American

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Victor Mature	...	Lt. Candella
Richard Conte	...	Martin Rome
Fred Clark	...	Lt Collins
Shelley Winters	...	Brenda Martingale
Betty Garde	...	Miss Pruett
Berry Kroeger	...	W.A. Niles
Tommy Cook	...	Tony Rome
Debra Paget	...	Teena Riconti
Hope Emerson	...	Rose Given
Roland Winters	...	Ledbetter
Walter Baldwin	...	Orvy
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Martin Begley	...	Bartender (scenes deleted)
Dan Sheridan	...	Detective (as Michael Sheridan)
Robert Adler	...	Man (uncredited)
Mimi Aguglia	...	Mama Roma (uncredited)
George Beranger	...	Barber (uncredited)
Oliver Blake	...	Mr. Masselli (uncredited)
Harry Carter	...	Elevator Operator (uncredited)
Dolores Castle	...	Rosa (uncredited)
Ken Christy	...	Detective Loomis (uncredited)
Davison Clark	...	Mounted Policeman (uncredited)
Ruth Clifford	...	Nurse (uncredited)
John Cortay	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Antonio Filauri	...	Mr. Caputo (uncredited)
Tiny Francone	...	Perdita (uncredited)
Howard Freeman	...	Sullivan the Drunk (uncredited)
Ed Hinton	...	Cop (uncredited)
Kathleen Howard	...	Miss Pruett's Mother (uncredited)
Thomas Ingersoll	...	Priest (uncredited)
Robert Karnes	...	Intern (uncredited)
George Magrill	...	Cop (uncredited)
George Melford	...	Barber (uncredited)
Joan Miller	...	Vera - Niles' Secretary (uncredited)
Tom Moore	...	Doctor (uncredited)
Tommy Nello	...	Julio the Newsboy (uncredited)
Jane Nigh	...	Nurse (uncredited)
Emil Rameau	...	Dr. Niklas (uncredited)
Claudette Ross	...	Rosa's Daughter (uncredited)
Elena Savonarola	...	Francesca (uncredited)
Harry Seymour	...	Tobacco Store Proprietor (uncredited)
Konstantin Shayne	...	Dr. Veroff (uncredited)
Michael Stark	...	Cop (uncredited)
June Storey	...	Miss Boone (uncredited)
Charles Tannen	...	Intern (uncredited)
Helen Troya	...	Girl (uncredited)
Tito Vuolo	...	Papa Roma (uncredited)
Charles Wagenheim	...	Counterman (uncredited)

Directed by
Robert Siodmak

Writing credits
Richard Murphy		(screenplay)
Henry Edward Helseth		(novel "The Chair for Martin Rome")
Ben Hecht		uncredited

Produced by
Sol C. Siegel	....	producer

Original Music by
Alfred Newman

Cinematography by
Lloyd Ahern		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Harmon Jones

Art Direction by
Albert Hogsett
Lyle R. Wheeler		(as Lyle Wheeler)

Set Decoration by
Ernest Lansing
Thomas Little

Costume Design by
Bonnie Cashin

Makeup Department
Ben Nye	....	makeup artist
Linda Cross	....	hair stylist (uncredited)
Harry Maret	....	makeup artist (uncredited)
Pat McNalley	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Production Management
Sid Bowen	....	production manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jasper Blystone	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Sound Department
Eugene Grossman	....	sound
Roger Heman Sr.	....	sound (as Roger Heman)

Special Effects by
Fred Sersen	....	special photographic effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Eddie Ledgerwood	....	grip (uncredited)
Paul Lockwood	....	camera operator (uncredited)
Cliff Maupin	....	still photographer (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Charles Le Maire	....	wardrobe director (as Charles LeMaire)

Editorial Department
David Block	....	digital intermediate colorist (uncredited)

Music Department
Earle Hagen	....	orchestral arranger
Lionel Newman	....	musical director
Herbert W. Spencer	....	orchestral arranger (as Herbert Spencer)

Other crew
Michael Audley	....	dialogue director (uncredited)
Rose Steinberg	....	script supervisor (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Distributors

• 20th Century Fox (1949) (France) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox of Germany (1950) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (1948) (USA) (theatrical)
• Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (1954) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Universum Film (UFA) (2007) (Germany) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Italian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

UK:12 (re-rating) (2005) | UK:A (original rating) | USA:Approved (PCA #12957) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Norway:16 (1949) | West Germany:16 (nf) | Finland:(Banned) (1949) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

14th Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Vito Scotti's first film.

Goofs:

Plot holes: The doctor that illegally treated Martin Rome (Richard Conte) was implicated by being paid in cash, in money reportedly taken from the lawyer Niles' safe. However Rome only finds jewelry and documents in Niles' safe, while emptying it.

Soundtrack:

Baby Face

Dark city, doomed gangster, stolen jewels--noir heaven

With his silky manners and glittering eyes, Richard Conte was a prince among hoodlums: elegant, magnetic and sharp as a shiv. As the mugs and roughnecks of the early thirties evolved into more sophisticated postwar gangsters, Conte's regal bearing gloved the gangster's raw aggression in smooth style. (Significantly, he was one of the first Italian-American leading men in Hollywood.) Conte always looks like he's plugged into some private source of electricity, like you could get a shock from touching him. He needs that intensity here, since he plays a wounded criminal who spends most of the movie lying in bed or limping around, dragging a gunshot-riddled leg and crumpling with pain. He still manages to radiate menace and charisma, threatening or seducing everyone who comes near him.

Plot-wise, CRY OF THE CITY is that old chestnut about two boys from the same neighborhood (New York's Little Italy, presented with far more nuance and authenticity than Hollywood's usual spaghetti-with-meatballs style) who grow up on opposite sides of the law. Lieutenant Candella (Victor Mature) pursues Martin Rome (Conte) relentlessly after he escapes from a prison hospital; Rome is determined to clear his girlfriend of suspicion in a jewel theft by finding the real culprits. The plot is just a scaffolding to support a series of scenes in which Rome and Candella alternately vie for leverage and influence over an eclectic parade of supporting characters, all of whom seem driven by fear or greed. Desperation inhabits the city like weather. Director Siodmak, one of the masters of film noir, suffuses the film with a dark mood, atmospheric locations, and those corrupted personal transactions that define the genre.

In a hospital in the middle of the night a priest murmurs and family-members weep quietly over a dying man who is chained to his bed—Martin Rome has just killed a cop in a shoot-out. Later, after he has escaped and collapsed again, his girl (Shelley Winters in a leopard-print coat) enlists an unlicensed foreign doctor to treat him in the back seat while they drive around damp city streets, using neon signs for light. Stolen jewels get stashed in a locker in a subway station. Marty almost meets his match in a massive, burly masseuse (Hope Emerson), who looms over him as he works his bright-eyed, caressing charm. Their scene together is funny, scary and perversely titillating all at once, as the mountainous woman starts to massage his back and then gets her hands around his throat. Sadder is Marty's seduction of a plain, middle-aged hospital nurse who is burdened, we later find out, with a nasty, selfish, annoying old mother. At one point Candella reads off to Marty a list of all the former girlfriends the cop has had to look up, and Marty amusingly reacts to each name with regret, embarrassment or fondness. For this tough guy, sex appeal is as powerful a weapon as a gun or a knife—sometimes it's the only one he has.

All the time we're rooting for Marty—at least I was. CRY OF THE CITY perfectly demonstrates how easily movies can mess with one's moral compass. Marty is a killer and a selfish, remorseless crook, but his élan and vulnerability make him an irresistible underdog. His adversary, Candella, is a self-righteous moralizer, a monomaniacal Javert whose hatred seems inspired more by his enemy's charisma than by his crimes. Victor Mature's heavy, stolid presence sharply contrasts with Conte's proud, dazzling quickness. Someone once described Mature as an intelligent actor cursed with the face and physique of a dissipated life guard; I forget who wrote that, but it hits the nail on the head. The poor guy *looked* like a bad actor—all beef and no brains—even though he wasn't. Here his scenes with the Rome family are intended to soften his character, and he does have likable moments, but the way he turns them all—finally even the kid brother—against Marty only increased my sympathy for the endangered outcast. His accusation that Marty uses people is fair enough, but he lays it on too thick; it wasn't Marty's idea to enlist the illegal doctor or the "trusty" who helps him break out of jail. Booming, "Stop in the name of the law!" Candella embodies implacable authority, and who could root for that?

I like to think that in real life superficial concerns like these wouldn't get in the way of my knowing right from wrong, but this is a movie; style is bound to trump substance. Are films like this one—made under the Hays Code, when movies were not allowed to openly glorify criminals—deliberately subversive? The script says one thing, but the casting says another. In a way, that hypocrisy is essential to noir, an under-the-radar phenomenon that made caustic comments about human nature while ostensibly endorsing the Ten Commandments. For Martin Rome, a premature death isn't too high a price to pay for all the fun he had breaking the rules. And a clichéd ending is not too high a price for the pleasure of this movie.