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The Naked City

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Contents

[edit] Introduction

The Naked City is perhaps the first film to deal with the fickleness of the press, and the short attention-span of the public, as it tracks the forty-eight hours following the reported murder of a Manhattan party girl.

It's gritty and well-acted, especially by veteran character actor Barry Fitzgerald in an off-beat role for him. Highlighting the cast are some notable character actors, making their first appearance on film and still years away from television and movie stardom, including James Gregory (The Manchurian Candidate (1962)), Paul Ford (The Phil Silvers Show (1955)), Arthur O'Connell (Anatomy of a Murder (1959)), Kathleen Freeman (Hogan's Heroes (1965)) and Nehemiah Persoff (The Untouchables (1959)).

But it's the streets and neighbourhoods of Manhattan that are the real stars of The Naked City: the grime, the crime, the teaming masses of humanity -- about one million in 1948 -- all crowded into a twenty-two-square-mile area. It's a lovingly filmed black-and-white snapshot of a time and place that no longer exist.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Main Cast

[edit] Supporting Cast

[edit] The Movie

There are eight million stories in the naked city . . .

A good-time girl is found murdered in her apartment. The detectives of the 65th Precinct begin the arduous task of piecing together the last hours of her life, and connecting the dots among her friends and boyfriends, as they struggle to find a killer hiding within Manhattan's urban jungle.

. . . this has been one of them.

[edit] Timeline

  • March 4, 1948: Released in theatres in the United States
  • September 30, 1958: First version of the TV series based on the movie premieres on the ABC television network; it will run for one season, with the last original episode airing on June 23, 1959
  • October 12, 1960: Second version of the TV series based on the movie premieres on the ABC television network; it will run for three years, with the last original episode airing on May 29, 1963
  • June 29, 1999: First release on DVD in the United States
  • March 20, 2007: Re-released on DVD in the United States

[edit] Influences on Pop Culture

Responsible for giving rise to the popular catchphrase, "There are eight-million stories in the naked city, this has been one of them."

[edit] Fandom & Kerfluffles

Because of both the age of this film (60+ years as of this writing) and the [probable] non-existence of a fandom devoted to it (as opposed to fandoms devoted specifically to actors Barry Fitzgerald and Howard Duff), the likelihood of any fannish kerfluffles is minimal.

It should be noted that when the term fandom is used in this case, it does not mean that the film is a forgotten relic on the dustbin of history. As a film genre, film noir, especially those made in the 1940s, is extremely popular with a large fan base who continue to view these films, purchase them on DVD, purchase books related to them, study them academically, as well as enjoy and understand pop culture references to them. However, the majority of these fans are passive consumers of these films, rather than active participants within a larger "fannish" culture. At this time, there appears to be no core group of fans devoting time to writing fan fiction, creating fan art, building websites or performing other fannish activities related to The Naked City.

[edit] External Links

[edit] FanWorksFinder

[edit] Wikipedia

[edit] Kathleen Freeman

[edit] James Gregory

[edit] Nehemiah Persoff

  • Nehemiah Persoff Paintings (note: since retiring from acting for health reasons, Persoff has spent his time as an artist; while this website features his art, it also contains a bio)

[edit] Sources

Below is a partial list of books to help you continue to learn about this film and its actors.

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