Cry of the City (1948)
Robert Siodmak, US 1948
Print source: Museum of Modern Art, New York
Running time: 95 minutes
About the print
This film’s striking black-and-white cinematography is highlighted through the nitrate print’s excellent condition—there is minimal scratching or damage throughout the copy. Shrinkage: 0.65%
About the film
“Except for a couple of unlikely incidents, this film is a realistic and exciting story of a man hunt. The principals are two men who had the same start in life—they were both of Italian parentage, came from poor families, and lived in the same rundown district; one made easy money the wrong way, the other earned a small salary and did it the hard way. . . . All the settings have an authentic flavor, the dialogue is terse and natural, and the direction gives the film both pace and punch.”
– Mae Tinee, Chicago Daily Tribune, October 21, 1948
“Cry of the City at the RKO Boston Theatre is another thriller of realistic crime school, obviously patterned by 20th Century-Fox to appeal to those huge and enthusiastic audiences who liked this company’s Kiss of Death, Call Northside 777 and Boomerang. It is tough and hard and stark, full of red-blooded action, yet so well developed in characterization and plot that it will appeal to mature film-goers. . . . Men will love it, and even if the romantic scenes are few and far between, no woman who likes good pictures should stay away from RKO Boston because the hero doesn’t marry the heroine in the last moments of the story.”
– Daily Boston Globe, October 29, 1948
“Understatement is the keynote of both Robert Siodmak’s direction and Richard Murphy’s pithy script. And Victor Mature, an actor once suspected of limited talents, turns in a thoroughly satisfying job as a sincere and kindly cop, who not only knows his business but the kind of people he is tracking down.”
– A. W., New York Times, September 30, 1948
This screening is supported by Friends of the Nitrate Picture Show.