City That Never Sleeps (1953)

Fifties Noir - City That Never Sleeps review by Steve

Offbeat and wonderfully pretentious police noir shot on location in Chicago in which the big, sad, suffering city is the narrator and personified as an impassive police sergeant (Chill Wills) who just might save a rogue prowl car cop (Gig Young) from a crooked lawyer (Edward Arnold) and a psycho-killer (William Talman).

Aside from the talking metropolis, the most memorable moments belong to Wally Cassell as a lonely deadbeat who performs an act as a mechanical man in the window of a burlesque theatre, doing his robotic dance moves decades before Jeffrey Daniel. But dreaming of a better life, like the many millions of sleeping citizens.

The standard crime narrative isn't all that interesting. This is all about the pessimistic noir atmosphere of the city at night and the humdrum lives of its people; the ambient futility. John Auer was a minor B-picture director but he creates a strong sense of fatalism. There is the artistic feel of the socialist noirs of the '40s.

It suggests the American way devours the dreams of its people. This is low budget poetic realism with an interesting if un-starry cast. Marie Windsor is always a standout as the duplicitous bad girl. It's melodramatic, yet opiated; another noir about the many lives that come together in the naked city. But its heightened mood sets it apart.