The Naked City takes deep focus to another level: every face in the background is part of the story and worth following, if only for half a moment. The film is deeply detailed, filled with hats, hand-lettered shop windows, subtle gestures. This is a vanished time and place where kids amble along unchaperoned holding corn dogs and jump ropes. The Naked City comes alive in street scenes. When leads exchange dialogue, it's a little less captivating except for the final quarter when our young detective Halloran finally finds his main suspect Willie Garzah (above). Interrupted from his prison-style exercise routine, Garzah struts in his crummy apartment, sweaty and arrogant. Halloran, played by Don Taylor, is so perfectly vulnerable and unsure, a thin kid in an grown-up's fedora and baggy suit.
Older detective Dan Muldoon (played by Barry Fitzgerald) shows Halloran the ropes as they struggle to piece together why a young model was murdered. Everything from Dragnet to Law & Order is a bit of an echo of The Naked City which makes it feel somewhat dated rather than groundbreaking, as it surely once was. The original cliche!
