(Jules Dassin, US 1948, 96 min., DCP)
“There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.” So ends this highly-influential crime drama from producer Mark Hellinger and director Jules Dassin. On the leading edge of the procedural sub-genre, the film follows a team of New York City detectives (lead by Barry Fitzgerald and Don Taylor) investigating the murder of a model in her apartment. Their line of inquiry takes many twists and turns, involving a string of jewel robberies, a man who is nothing he says he is, and the world of professional wrestling. New York photographer Weegee was on set as a visual consultant, but it was cinematographer William Daniels who earned an Academy Award for his camerawork, which was all done on location in New York City.