There were quite a few reasons for wanting to see 'The Naked City'. Like Barry Fitzgerald in a lot of other films ('And Then There Were None' being my introduction to him and still consider his performance in that one of his best),though it was interesting to see him in a lead role rather than his relative usual supporting roles and an atypical one at that. Really like what has been seen so far of Jules Dassin's work, especially 'Night and the City'. Also wanted to see whether the film lived up to its highly influential reputation.

Good news is mostly 'The Naked City' does. One can see why 'The Naked City' was influential in its documentary style, which at the time and even by today's standards innovative, and how it is treated in a way that is driven by its characters and with an emphasis on the police and how they worked. And that makes it a highly interesting film and elevates that is fairly conventional, with familiar genre tropes, in the story department. Yet still makes a gripping film regardless of that.

Not many problems here, though for my tastes Don Taylor seemed bland and detached, not always looking very comfortable either.

Do think that the narration could have been used less, as some of it did not always feel needed.

Conversely, 'The Naked City' is immaculately photographed and New York, like its own character, is a major star here. The cinematography and editing Oscars were richly deserved. The haunting score adds hugely, as does Dassin's direction. Dassin is highly successful in creating an authentic, audacious and sometimes unsettling visual style. He is equally successful at keeping the story at a controlled, yet never in my mind mannered or tedious, way that sustains the suspense brilliantly.

Loved the layered tautness of the script outside of the narration, while the story is gripping and its intelligence, high suspense and a knockout of a final chase made me able to forgive that it was quite conventional. The opening sequence is a unique one. Outside of Taylor, didn't actually have an issue with the performances. Although an effective Fitzgerald has been widely talked about, on both sides of good and not so good (am in the former camp),for me the best performance came from chilling Ted De Corsia.

In conclusion, very good film and deservedly influential. 8/10

A beautiful model is killed and a couple of hours later, a known drunk at least known to his associates as a boozer is found floating in the Hudson River. Just two stories in the Naked City and who could know they were connected in any way.

There's no mystery involved in Jules Dassin's The Naked City because we know immediately that Ted DeCorsia is the guilty party. But it's how they are connected and how DeCorsia is literally brought down that The Naked City plot deals with.

Homicide cops Barry Fitzgerald and Don Taylor are assigned to the case and the plot of the film is pretty much like the police investigation part of a typical Law and Order episode. That is if Law and Order had been done back in 1948 and shoe leather replaced letting your fingers do the walking over a computer. That part of the job is handled by the younger and more vigorous Taylor.

Dassin does make one glaring error though, but without it there would be no climax. Taylor may be a new guy as a detective, but he did pound a beat and was no rookie policeman. Why when he had a rough idea of where DiCorsia was he didn't wait for his backup is a dumb mistake.

The key performance is that of Howard Duff who just keeps lying like a rug even as the police have him dead bang involved in some way in both cases. I've known at least one person like that in my life, a pathological liar who just gets used to the lies, it's a miracle he keeps his stories straight.

The Naked City was the film debut of two beloved character players James Gregory and Walter Burke. Gregory has his one scene with Don Taylor where Gregory is a beat cop who gave him a key lead on DeCorsia's identity and Burke is the second victim and he's killed in the first ten minutes of the film.

But the real star of The Naked City is 1948 New York in which your's truly has no memory of because I was in my first year on the planet. No accident that The Naked City won Oscars for black and white cinematography and editing. The Lower East Side is as relatives described though and my parents in their first year in New York and my first year here had an apartment on Vernon Avenue in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. They could have been taking me for a stroll in the carriage during that climatic police chase on the Williamsburg Bridge. Glad that that particular bridge got its due, most people think of the Brooklyn Bridge as THE East River crossing.

The Naked City is a good police yarn made very special by the cinematography and the atmosphere that Jules Dassin creates. It's one for nostalgia lovers.

A woman is found dead in her bed by her cleaning lady which appears to be a suicide until the New York City police detectives take over the case and work it like a homicide. The venerable Irish actor Barry Fitzgerald is lead Detective Lt. Daniel Muldoon who needs all his wits about him as well as the assistance of all of his detectives to crack this case.

There are a number of suspects with motives to investigate and in a semi-documentary style the audience is fed clues gradually as we follow behind the hard working detectives as they interview the cast of suspects. A key suspect is a playboy hustler named Frank Niles who is played by a very young and good looking Howard Duff in his second movie role.

This is a film genre that has been lost (more likely extinct) to todays movie goers due in most part to film content and story line taking a back seat to today's Super Hero and Action films that are filled more with CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery) than with an intriguing story line. Ten years after the 1948 film release of The Naked City the television producers over at ABC made a brilliant move and were successful in running 138 epsiodes over the next four (4) seasons. Even seventy (70) years later I still enjoyed watching this classic 1948 crime film classic .

I give the film a solid 8 out of 10 rating/