Chicago - 12 Uhr Mitternacht

...is but one of the many elements in this quirky film that makes it SO enjoyable. The plot is complex, but still masterfully laid out, the dialogue is clean and effective, and the imaginative direction, lighting, cinematography and editing clearly place "City" in the ranks of minor classics.

In fact, you are rarely aware that this was a low-budget Republic Studios pic. There's one scene near the end...the standard "calling all cars" scene in the police station, which could have been shot with a single guy at a microphone with a bare wall behind him; instead, we see a bee-hive of activity, with several radio cops reflected in a magical labyrinth of glass panes, with shadowy figures passing through the hallway in back of them. It's seemingly insignificant details such as this that keep "City" bristling with intense visuals and character interplay from beginning to end (yeah, the scene with William Talman breaking into Edward Arnold's office at night could have been edited down to about half its length, and the continually recurring stock footage of the police car's POV while racing past a bunch of 1940's parked cars is pretty comical).

Having a heavyweight actor like Arnold in a pivotal role lends acting "gravitas"; William Talman, an actor I've never really cared for, is superb---subtle, cunning, and ultimately maniacal. The confusion between John Kelly Sr. and Jr. as the tension builds is but one of the masterful plot devices, and the subplot of the Mechanical Man (Wally Cassell) and his dreams of an idyllic life with his lady love amidst the wonders of nature is positively brilliant, as is his change of heart and willingness to sacrifice himself for a noble cause. Cassell's physical skill is as impressive as the emotional sensitivity he brings to the role* And how about mother-in-law's offstage nagging of Gig Young? I found it subtly creepy, almost like mother's voice in PSYCHO.

On top of it all, we have the Chill Wills character; you must decide for yourself if it helps or harms the film; I took it as just another off-beat element in this imaginative story of a single night in Chicago. Who knows?--maybe the whole thing was a bad dream from which Gig Young wakes up at the end.

Only Mala Powers disappoints in her role; she was rather miscast as the tough, world-weary dame, though her more sensitive scenes are fine.

* NOTE - The December 22nd, 1960 episode of TV's June Allyson Show was entitled "SILENT PANIC", and featured HARPO MARX as a deaf-mute who works at Christmastime as a Mechanical Man in a department store window; he also happens to be the only eyewitness to a murder on the street. Sound familiar? Unfortunately, the hour-long show fails miserably to live up to its fascinating premise. But I wonder how many other films, radio shows, stories, etc have used this novel plot device over the years.

"City That Never Sleeps" is one of the strangest film noir movies I have seen--mostly because there is a real surreal aspect to the story that you just don't find in other noir pictures. I don't want to tell you more about this...suffice to say that one of the characters is VERY unusual and you learn just how unusual at the close of the movie.

Gig Young plays Johnny Kelly, a disaffected cop who is very unhappy in his marriage and is contemplating running off with his mistress, a stripper, and quitting his job on the force. When you see and hear why Johnny is unhappy, you do feel a bit sorry for him, as his evil mother-in-law lives with them and CONSTANTLY harangues him about his wife earning more than him! Instead of belting the old broad in the mouth (definitely a noir way of handling it) he plans on just leaving...for good. But before he does this he has one more night on the job...and a very eventful night it is. While there is MUCH more to the story and a plot involving William Talman who plays an amazingly cold and vicious killer, I think it's best you just see the film for yourself.

The big reveal at the end will determine whether you like this film or not...see the picture and see what I mean. I'd like to say more...but again, just see it for yourself. And, if you want to see it, it's currently up on YouTube.

In Chicago, the police officer Johnny Kelly (Gig Young) is unhappy with his work that pays low-salary and with his marriage. His wife Kathy Kelly (Paula Raymond) has a better salary and his mother-in-law frequently humiliates him. Johnny was forced by his father Sgt. John 'Pop' Kelly Sr. (Otto Hulett) to join the police, but he intends to quit his job and leave his wife to flee to California with his mistress Sally "Angel Face" Connors (Mala Powers), who dances in a night-club. When Johnny gets cold feet, Sally tells that she will move to California with the small-time actor Gregg Warren (Wally Cassell), who performs a robot in the window of the night-club where she works, and plans a show with her. During the night, the crooked lawyer Penrod Biddel (Edward Arnold) summons Johnny to participate in a scheme to arrest the thief Hayes Stewart (William Talman) and protect his younger brother Stubby Kelly (Ron Hagerthy) that has teamed-up with Hayes. However Biddel is betrayed by his ambitious wife Lydia Biddel (Marie Windsor) along the restless and busy night.

"City That Never Sleeps" is a film-noir with a good story of a cop dissatisfied with his job and wife that has the intention to give up of everything independent of the consequences and go to California with his mistress. The plot has many subplots but the conclusion is moralist and does not fit well to a film-noir. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Cidade Que Não Dorme" ("The City That Never Sleeps")

Contrary to the croonings of Liza Minnelli and Frank Sinatra, The City That Never Sleeps is not New York, New York but Chicago, Illinois. At least it is in John H. Auer's 1953 movie of that name, sort of a noir-inflected Grand Hotel or Dinner At Eight, that opens and closes with floodlit vistas of the wedding-cake Wrigley Building. Several characters' lives intersect in an urban crime drama that even offers a touch of the fanciful.

Gig Young, at the center, plays a cop who's dissatisfied with his job and with his marriage (his wife, Paula Raymond, makes more money than he does). Off hours, he hangs around a strip club called The Silver Frolics on Wabash Avenue to see, both on stage and backstage, headliner Mala Powers. That relationship is a rocky as his marriage, and she's as unhappy with her lot as he with his (`Whaddaya want me to do? Crawl into a deep freeze?' she taunts him during yet another breakup). Then Young heads to the precinct for the graveyard shift, riding in a prowl car with a new partner he's never met before (Chill Wills, who also plays the unseen `Voice of the City').

During Young's nocturnal tour he meets up again and again with the various players in the plot. There's rich, crooked lawyer Edward Arnold, who blackmails him into burglarizing some incriminating papers; his two-timing wife, Marie Windsor; former magician turned criminal William Talman; his own brother (Ron Hagerthy) who's now Talman's apprentice; his pop (Otto Hulett), a police veteran; and a `mechanical man' (Gregg Warren) who entertains passersby in the Silver Frolics' window.

Some of the ties among the characters are up front, others furtive, to be doled out as the plots thicken. By the end (Poverty Row having learned the lessons MGM taught a couple of decades earlier in the titles cited above), there's tragedy and heartache, reappraisals and reconciliations. There's even a character who vanishes as mysteriously as he materialized – a whiff of the supernatural which curiously fails to leave any influence on the way the stories unfold.

The City That Never Sleeps shows the right breadth for a big, urban story – from Arnold's moderne penthouse to Young's middle-class flat to the raffish alleys running off Wabash Avenue. Director of photography John Russell (later to film Psycho) helps Auer out with some crafty touches (a telephone dial glowing from a flashlight shone upon it comes to mind). It's not a haunting movie, but it's a satisfying one – a title that did Republic Pictures proud.

If you like your mysteries on the strange side, this movie is the one. I keep wondering how they filmed it without any people on the streets. Stock footage to bolster an obviously low budget helps somewhat, but this movie depicts Chicago in the middle of the night, and the only car on the street is the police car occupied by our hero. But this was 1953, so it was a different world at 3:00 a.m. There is a little of "The Asphalt Jungle" in this one--including the crooked lawyer, a pretty woman too evil for comfort, a safe to steal something from and the usual payment at the end. Then there is the twist -- the "ghost" influence -- who is in the middle of the evening's events, and who also narrates. Plus there's a guy portraying a store window mechanical man. Like I said, this is a strange one, but worth a curious look.