Rockstar Newswire

The Naked City (1948; Jules Dassin)



“There are 8 million stories in the naked city….”

Today’s entry in our Rockstar Recommends series of films to get you prepped for the release of L.A. Noire is one that should sound quite familiar to anyone who’s recently checked out our pre-order exclusive bonus cases.

“The Naked City” – a landmark 1948 crime thriller noir from director Jules Dassin – is such a taut example of captivating, well-paced detective storytelling that we couldn’t resist basing an entire Homicide desk case around it to re-create it as an interactive experience.

While the original film is set in New York as opposed to our Los Angeles re-imagining, the set-up and other details remain faithful. A beautiful fashion model is found dead in the bathroom of her apartment – was it suicide as suggested by the appearance of strewn pills near the corpse? The reporting homicide detectives, led by a crafty veteran Irish lieutenant with an innate intuition and remarkable eye, quickly deduce that foul play is at hand (as seen in the above clip).  From there, a tense canvassing of suspects, clues, leads takes the lieutenant and his detective team on a wild ride that ultimately leads to one of moviedom’s most memorable chase sequence climaxes at the Williamsburg Bridge.

This film still holds up as an innovatively shot, and interestingly self-aware piece - narrated with old New Yawk charm by the film’s producer, Mark Hellinger, speaking as himself. Highly recommended also for its wonderful characterizations – including a confounding and pitiful pathological liar, a likeable rookie detective earning his chops (yet still making a critical rookie mistake in the third act), and – to underscore the film’s theme of 8 million stories and provide some comic relief – a wealth of thoroughly amusing ‘peds’, something that we can definitely appreciate.

Naked City and Naked City-related trademarks and trade dress are trademarks of Master Licensing, Inc.

Previously:
Watch the All-New L.A. Noire Video for "The Naked City" Pre-Order Exclusive Vice Desk Case
Rockstar Recommends: “He Walked by Night”
Rockstar Recommends: “Chinatown”
Rockstar Recommends: “Scarlet Street”