While the City Sleeps (1956)

A serial killer has been killing beautiful women in New York, and the new owner of a media company offers a high ranking job to the 1st administrator who can get the earliest scoops on the case.

Director:

Fritz Lang

Writers:

Casey Robinson (screenplay), Charles Einstein (novel)

Stars:

Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, George Sanders

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Dana Andrews	...	Edward Mobley
Rhonda Fleming	...	Dorothy Kyne
George Sanders	...	Mark Loving
Howard Duff	...	Lt. Burt Kaufman
Thomas Mitchell	...	John Day Griffith
Vincent Price	...	Walter Kyne
Sally Forrest	...	Nancy Liggett
John Drew Barrymore	...	Robert Manners (as John Barrymore Jr.)
James Craig	...	'Honest' Harry Kritzer
Ida Lupino	...	Mildred Donner
Robert Warwick	...	Amos Kyne
Mae Marsh	...	Mrs. Manners
Ralph Peters	...	Gerald Meade
Sandy White	...	Judith Felton
Larry J. Blake	...	Tim, Police Desk Sergeant (as Larry Blake)

Storyline

Death of media magnat Amos Kyne is causing power struggle between his executives. In the meantime New York women become prey of a serial killer. Reporter Edward Mobley is in that circumstances faced with almost impossible missions: to catch the killer, to prevent the media empire from falling into the wrong hands and to save his romantic relationship from break-up.

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Plot Keywords:

murder | reporter | columnist | wire service | secretary | 

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Taglines:

Suspense as startling as a strangled scream !

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Genres:

Drama | Film-Noir

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 May 1956 (USA)

Also Known As:

News Is Made at Night

Filming Locations:

City Hall - 200 N. Spring Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

RKO Radio Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.00 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The sequence depicting the New York subway was actually filmed in the Los Angeles subway.

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Goofs

When Barrymore Jr. is watching Andrews on TV, he is clutching a copy of "Tales From The Crypt". When he drops it to the floor, a close-up of the comic book now shows it to be titled "The Strangler".

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Quotes

Ed Mobely: What a beautiful nightgown; and it's a shortie!

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Connections

Referenced in Maniac (1980)

User Reviews

"I wonder what the NICE people are doing tonight."

Dana Andrews says this to Ida Lupino as they fool around in the back of a cab. In fact, this beautifully movie has almost NO nice people in it. Andrews's girl, Sally Forrest, is nice. That would be just the word for her character, too: nice.

Aside from being exciting, this movie is sociologically interesting. It is part film noir and part 1950s-60s trying to get ahead in the workplace story.

A wealthy media king dies at the start and his son, Vincent Price, plays three of his father's employees (George Sanders, Thomas Mitchell, and Howard Duff) against each other.

In the meantime, John Drew Barrymore is murdering young women. (We see this at the very beginning.) So it's about finding out his identity. This involves various women involved with the men in the story. And, it's about getting that big job.

It's a cast to kill for. Besides those I've mentioned, Rhonda Fleming is Price's not very nice wife.

This may not be Lang at his best. But it's far from his worst.