classicsoncall You remember that scene where Lieutenant Candella (Victor Mature) challenges Marty (Richard Conte) by stating that he (Candella) has a gun and Marty doesn't believe it? Candella says, "Go ahead, call my bluff". How many of you were waiting for him to say 'Make my day'. I'm betting Clint Eastwood studied this film at some point in his career.Well this is a nifty little noir masterpiece that has it's share of elements that made the genre so popular. On the lam after breaking out of a prison hospital ward, Martin Rome (Conte) beats a path through his old neighborhood trying to stay a step ahead of his boyhood friend Candella, now a police lieutenant. Sometimes you have to overlook some of the less than credible aspects of a story, like Marty using a spoon to pick the lock of his prison cell, I would have thought he'd need at least a knife and a fork.Holy cow, if nothing else you've got to catch this flick for Madame Rose Given. The only time I've ever seen actress Hope Emerson elsewhere was in the 1950 prison flick "Caged", and if you thought she was scary here with her hands around Marty's neck, then you're in for a real treat with that movie. You know, it's almost impossible to make up a character like her, you just have to see it to believe it.The cat and mouse game between Marty and Candella runs it's course in due time, but not before we get a cool glimpse of the city in all it's harsh splendor, another hallmark of the genre. Shelley Winters shows up as one of Marty's one time floozie gal pals, and offers up one of the film's better lines acknowledging that he did in one of his rat pals, crooked attorney Niles (Berry Kroeger) - "I'm glad you killed him, Marty. He was a bad man".

GManfred Robert Siodmak never failed when it came to Film Noir ("Criss Cross", "Phantom Lady", etc) and doesn't disappoint here with "Cry Of The City", which is as tough and as gritty a noir as you will find. Tense and taut from beginning to finish, this picture has no dead spots and no 'down' time as Siodmak keeps the story moving at breakneck speed. The plot centers on two Hollywood second-stringers in Victor Mature and Richard Conte, who give excellent performances and put the story over in a convincing manner.Mature is the cop, Conte the hoodlum, who has murdered a cop and escapes from a hospital. Mature and his partner, Fred Clark, must find him before he leaves the country. Also in the cast are Berry Kroeger as a slimy lawyer, Shelley Winters as (what else?) a bimbo/ floozy and Hope Emerson as a 'contact' to help Conte in his getaway. Emerson was terrific, and her sinister presence makes you think she should have made more movies.They don't make 'em like this anymore, movies or directors. I thought Victor Mature was perfect as a straight cop with a sensitive side, better even than he was in "I Wake Up Screaming" or "Kiss Of Death". I would put this one right behind "Out Of The Past", which is my favorite of the noir genre.

bkoganbing Had Cry Of The City been done at Warner Brothers in the Thirties this would have been perfect material for a James Cagney/Pat O'Brien film with the story of two childhood friends, one who goes into the police force and one who goes into a life of crime. Of course they would have to have been Irish because neither Cagney or O'Brien would have made convincing Italian protagonists as Cry Of The City has in its leads.And the leads are Victor Mature and Richard Conte. Mature is good as the upright cop who makes it personal to go after Richard Conte who has now committed the ultimate sin, he's killed a cop. But like a film a year earlier for Mature, Kiss Of Death, the film is dominated by Richard Conte who plays a charismatic and fascinating villain just as Richard Widmark did in Kiss Of Death.Unlike Widmark who is a loner, Conte is charming and is ruthless in his use of that charm. The film opens with him seriously wounded after shooting a police officer. But he recovers and is in a prison hospital awaiting trial. It's the death penalty for sure, but Conte does in fact charm his way into an escape (I won't say how) and from then on because of his wound has to rely on a lot of help including his own family.Some other standout performances including an old girl friend, Shelley Winters whom he has obtain an unlicensed physician to tend him. Hope Emerson who is as evil as she was as the prison matron in Caged, plays a masseuse who Conte uses to obtain traveling money as the woman is quite mobbed up. Tommy Cook plays Conte's hero worshiping younger brother who realizes just how much he and the family were being used in the climax.Most of all there's Berry Kroeger who plays one of his usual slime ball characters as a criminal attorney who indulges in a bit of criminality himself most discreetly behind the scenes. Kroeger split parts like that with George MacReady back in the day and is always fascinating to watch.Most of all there is Richard Conte who should have merited Oscar consideration in one of his best screen performances.

dbdumonteil This Robert Siodmak work may seem derivative as another film noir.But it does not follow the rules.First the two leads are cast against type.We would expect Mature as Rome and Richard Conte as Candella.It increases the interest because we do not know how their characters will evolve.Then ,and it was extremely unusual at the time,there is no female central character;gorgeous Debra Paget appears in the first sequences ("she must be an angel") and only returns at the end of the movie in the church.No central female character ,but plenty of them ,and all are interesting: a nurse and her mom,a street gal (Shelley Winters),a mannish (lesbian?) female crook-the scene in the subway is very suspenseful-,and finally Rome's mom.A true mom,who still believes in her children ,but who begins to lose her illusions; fortunately there is a younger son,and the cop keeps a close watch on him.This mother is very different from the terrifying over possessive one Siodmak had introduced in his overlooked " Christmas holiday" (1944)