The Corpse Ran Down Mulberry Street

Long before there was a Coppola, Scorsese or even a Chase, "Naked City" tackled a sentimentalized Mafia story, in which the Mafia is never mentioned but hovers over all the action. Before the climax in a shower of bullets and the corny dying scene, we're treated to a quality performance (as always) by Nehemiah Persoff as a good-hearted Italian-American undertaker and fine use of familiar Manhattan locations.

The contrived story involves illegal immigration, namely smuggling an Italian into NYC from the old country in a coffin supposedly containing his corpse, and typical gangster content, as Italian candy that's actually heroin is smuggled in with him. Al Lewis as a chatty but deaf (!) delivery man for funeral homes is the first fall guy in the story, while Persoff learns the hard way the dangers of getting mixed up with gangsters, notably his creepy, down and out godfather, well played by Joe DeSantis. Brenda Vaccaro has a tiny role as the fiancee of Persoff's son, marking her screen debut.

The sugarcoated script by Jo Pagano is lousy, especially in its creaky subplot concerning Persoff's late wife as a "fallen woman". Pagano's best movie was a film noir directed by Cy Endfield, "The Sound of Fury", which IMDb informs us was preserved on 35mm by the only existing print, part of Scorsese's film collection.

Oh my God, what a terrific litlle scheme for this outstanding and so inventive story. I have never seen this before, never. A totally crazy story about an illegal immigrant hidden in a coffinand who, after a car crash, gets away, getting to the police force the existence of the smuggling druf racket.

I love this series so much. Each topic is different from the other. As far as I know, no series, and so long, offers so many different schemes and so many kinds of characters.