The Sleeping City
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''The Sleeping City'' is a 1950 American
film noir Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...
crime film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...
in semidocumentary style that was set in and filmed at New York's Bellevue Hospital. Directed by
George Sherman George Sherman (July 14, 1908 – March 15, 1991) was an American film director and Film producer, producer of low-budget Western (genre), Western films. One obituary said his "credits rival in number those of anyone in the entertainment indus ...
, it stars
Richard Conte Nicholas Peter Conte (March 24, 1910 – April 15, 1975), known professionally as Richard Conte, was an American actor. He was known for his starring roles in films noir and crime dramas during the 1940s and 1950s, including '' Call Northside ...
and Coleen Gray. The film is notable for its photography, and was one of the few motion pictures of the era to be shot entirely on location. The film begins with an unusual prologue, featuring Conte, to assure the audience that the story is "completely fictional" and did not take place at Bellevue or in New York City. The prologue was inserted at the insistence of New York mayor William O'Dwyer, who felt that the script besmirched the reputation of the city-run hospital.


Plot

An intern is shot mysteriously on an East River pier adjoining Bellevue Hospital. The chief investigating detective views this as a difficult case, so with the cooperation of the commissioner of hospitals, he assigns detective Fred Rowan, who had been a medical corpsman, to go undercover as intern Fred Gilbert. Rowan becomes involved with the attractive nurse Ann Sebastian and also becomes friendly with Pop Ware, a popular elevator operator. Ware, who works part-time taking bets, seems initially to be benign, but it becomes apparent that he has been loaning money to the interns, including the slain intern and Rowan's roommate Steve Anderson, who is depressed and commits suicide. Rowan deliberately loses money betting with Ware, and Ware says that Rowan can pay off his bet by stealing narcotics. Rowan plays along, encouraged by Ann, but eventually stops providing drugs to Ware. When Ware tries to kill Rowan, he is killed in a shootout on the hospital roof. Investigators find that Ann had worked as a courier for Ware. Rowan, turning aside Ann's pleas, places her under arrest.


Cast

*
Richard Conte Nicholas Peter Conte (March 24, 1910 – April 15, 1975), known professionally as Richard Conte, was an American actor. He was known for his starring roles in films noir and crime dramas during the 1940s and 1950s, including '' Call Northside ...
as Fred Rowan * Coleen Gray as Ann Sebastian * Richard Taber as Pop Ware * John Alexander as Insp. Gordon * Peggy Dow as Kathy Hall * Alex Nicol as Dr. Steve Anderson


Reception

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though some ...
of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' dismissed the film, writing that "New York's famous Bellevue Hospital is the literal and alluring locale for a frankly fictitious mystery drama about internes and the smuggling of dope ... But beyond this pictorial asset, which is employed mainly for atmosphere, there is little about ''The Sleeping City'' to distinguish it from any thriller film ... for all its performance and direction by George Sherman in a tensile thriller style, ''The Sleeping City'' is just a mystery-chase film with a hospital as its locale. It is not the fine cosmopolitan drama of medical practice and human life that it had every chance to be." Bruce Eder has compared the film to another of the "
cinéma vérité Cinéma vérité (, , ) is a style of documentary filmmaking developed by Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, inspired by Dziga Vertov's theory about '' Kino-Pravda''. It combines improvisation with use of the camera to unveil truth or highlight subje ...
-style" crime thrillers produced in the 1950s: "Universal made ''The Sleeping City'' as its own contribution to the cycle, directed by George Sherman. The results weren't as stylistically striking as '' The Naked City'', but thad an appeal all its own -- the location shots had a more polished and slightly more visually lyrical look than those of ''The Naked City'', and if the music by Frank Skinner (who'd scored part of the Dassin movie) wasn't as ornate as that of Miklós Rózsa (who scored the Dassin movie's finale), it helped sustain the tension set up by the script."Eder, Bruce
''Allmovie by Rovi'', film/DVD review, no date. Accessed: August 18, 2013.


See also

* List of American films of 1950


References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sleeping City, The 1950 films 1950s crime thriller films American crime thriller films American black-and-white films Films directed by George Sherman Film noir Universal Pictures films Films set in New York City Films shot in New York City Films scored by Frank Skinner 1950s English-language films 1950s American films English-language crime thriller films