- Robert Siodmak's Cry of the City is a fairly average cops-and-criminals film noir helped substantially by its talented stable of actors and impressive location filming. The cops in this case are Lts. Candella (Victor Mature) and Collins (Fred Clark), who already have criminal Martin Rome (Richard Conte) in custody at the film's start. Of course, Martin was easy to catch after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds in a firefight that left a police officer dead. Now he's recovering under guard in a hospital, where he is visited by a mysterious woman named Teena Ricante (Debra Paget). Nobody seems to know who she is except Martin, and he's not exactly forthcoming when it comes to information that might help the police.
- Interestingly, Lt. Candella is on familiar terms with Martin's family, even going so far as to pop in on Mama (Mimi Aguglia) and Papa (Tito Vuolo) Rome, who have always recently cooked something delicious. The parents don't know much, though, and Martin's younger brother Tony (Tommy Cook) has inherited Martin's reluctance to help the police. In the meantime, Martin gets help from a janitor (Walter Baldwin) to escape and quickly visits the seedy lawyer (Berry Kroeger) who tried to frame him for a different crime. As the bodies pile up and Martin takes advantage of his family, a sympathetic nurse (Betty Garde), an old flame (Shelley Winters), and the aforementioned Miss Ricante, it becomes easier and easier to root for the cops.
- Oddly enough, the film's best scene arrives as a complete surprise when Martin drops in on a Swedish masseuse named Rose Givens (Hope Emerson) to sell her back some jewels she once helped to steal. The sturdily-built Emerson isn't one to be underestimated, as I should have realized from seeing her steal the show from Hepburn and Tracy as a circus strongwoman in Adam's Rib. What starts out as a relaxing massage quickly shifts to a deranged monologue followed by a near-strangling. Followed again by pancakes and pleasant conversation the next morning. Through no fault of Mature's or Conte's, both of whom deliver reliably strong performances, Givens is by far the most memorable character in this film. In a few months, I'll probably only remember her and the wonderful background shots of Broadway Avenue that helped to frame all the crying that was done in this particular city.
- Based on a novel by Henry Edward Helseth and apparently featuring an uncredited Ben Hecht.
