The Naked City (1948)

When a fashion model is murdered, it falls on a veteran detective (Barry Fitzgerald) and his young protege (Don Taylor) to find her killer which leads them through a maze of the model's friends, associates and victims until the murderer is unmasked. Revolutionary for its time in that the entire film was shot on actual location in New York City in a faux documentary style rather than Hollywood backlots and soundstages, the film has lost some of its freshness mainly because its gritty realism in depicting police procedures and cases has been usurped by countless television shows like its most recent spawn, the CSI franchise. The film benefits by the realistic look of the entire cast from the leads to the smallest bit part, no one looks like an actor or movie star, they look like authentic. Alas, the acting is pretty bad right down the line, some of it expected like Barry Fitzgerald but also from others who've proved themselves in the past like Howard Duff. But Jules Dassin's direction is taut and lean and he propels the film at a galloping pace right up to its big chase finale. The score is by Miklos Rozsa (whose scoring for the finale is a beauty) and Frank Skinner. The massive cast includes Dorothy Hart, Ted De Corsia, Paul Ford, James Gregory, Kathleen Freeman, Robert H. Harris, Molly Picon and David Opatoshu.