Post by kims on Nov 18, 2023 1:36:23 GMT
Just watched it again-over my lifetime probably over 20 times. Seems 2nd rate, until you realize the NYC scenes are filmed without the public knowing. really a "let's take the camera to the streets" affair before the likes of steady cam. You'd almost think some high school or college students made this on a lark, but this was 1948 and "this is one of the 8 million stories in the city" - anyone remember the tv show?
It's no light weight cast but not composed of the big stars: Barry Fitzgerald, Don Taylor, Howard Duff, Ted de Corsia(what a bad guy and how did they manage the death scene when they did "pop up on the street" filming?) Dorothy Hart, Frank Conroy. Go to Imdb and look at that cast list. And your narrator is Mark Hellinger a Broadway critic whose life was probably on the noir side. To have a big star appear on the streets would have been a hinderance to filming. Wonder how often scenes had to be reshot? I would imagine in this style of filming, you don't get many chances for retakes. After all that person who would have been an extra can't be recalled-he went to work, she went to the store. And which cinematographer achieved this? William Daniels.
Was it low budget? I don't know. The interior scene audio sounds like one mike was put in the room. For all the seeming bad production, it is a great film attempting a documentary style. Watch it aware that the camera was hidden during the outdoor scenes, in vans, fake newsstands, etc. And people on the street unaware that filming is occurring. This is a film that should be on the curriculum of film studies courses.
I wish I had the powers of writing that many of you have to do this film justice. THE NAKED CITY may not be 4 star, but I believe your old film education is incomplete until you watch it.
It's no light weight cast but not composed of the big stars: Barry Fitzgerald, Don Taylor, Howard Duff, Ted de Corsia(what a bad guy and how did they manage the death scene when they did "pop up on the street" filming?) Dorothy Hart, Frank Conroy. Go to Imdb and look at that cast list. And your narrator is Mark Hellinger a Broadway critic whose life was probably on the noir side. To have a big star appear on the streets would have been a hinderance to filming. Wonder how often scenes had to be reshot? I would imagine in this style of filming, you don't get many chances for retakes. After all that person who would have been an extra can't be recalled-he went to work, she went to the store. And which cinematographer achieved this? William Daniels.
Was it low budget? I don't know. The interior scene audio sounds like one mike was put in the room. For all the seeming bad production, it is a great film attempting a documentary style. Watch it aware that the camera was hidden during the outdoor scenes, in vans, fake newsstands, etc. And people on the street unaware that filming is occurring. This is a film that should be on the curriculum of film studies courses.
I wish I had the powers of writing that many of you have to do this film justice. THE NAKED CITY may not be 4 star, but I believe your old film education is incomplete until you watch it.