Naked City - 1048
Cats: Film Noir, New York|
“There are eight million stories in the Naked City . . .” goes the phrase. It was used in closing narration for the television show of the same name. It is also the theme of this movie, the final one produced by Mark Hellinger. The idea is simple. Take a murder story from the headlines and base a script on the event, investigation to the solution and justice being served. This was Mark Hellinger’s idea. Mr. Hellinger had been a critic and columnist in New York. His contemporaries were Walter Winchell and Damon Runyon. Mark Hellinger was from the world of hard drinking, tough talking school of journalisim. His world was Broadway at night, full of wise guy lingo. Mr. Hellinger went west in the mid 30’s and started as a writer at Warner Brothers. His term at Warner’s culminated in the script for The Roaring Twenties. After that he was stolen away by Darryl Zanuck who made a full producer at Fox. After serving as a was correspondent in the south Pacific during the war, Mr. Hellinger returned to Hollywood as an independent producer. Prior to Naked City Mr. Hellinger produced The Killers in 1946. Unfortunately Mr. Hellinger never saw this film released; he died suddenly three months before the picture’s opening in 1948.
Mr. Hellinger insisted on shooting on location in New York and called this his love note to the City. He was always on the set supervising every detail. It shows, as shooting on location was no easy feat in 1947.
This lasting tribute to� Mr. Hellinger’s� talent will be on Turner Classic Movies December 10 at 8:00PM.
