Cry of the City (1948)

September 29, 1948, release date

Directed by Robert Siodmak

Screenplay by Richard Murphy, Ben Hecht

Based on The Chair for Martin Rome by Henry Edward Helseth

Music by Alfred Newman

Edited by Harmon Jones

Cinematography by Lloyd Ahern

Victor Mature as Lieutenant Candella

Richard Conte as Martin Rome

Fred Clark as Lieutenant Collins

Shelley Winters as Brenda Martingale

Betty Garde as Frances Pruett, the nurse in the hospital

Berry Kroeger as W. A. Niles

Tommy Cook as Tony Rome, Martin’s younger brother

Debra Paget as Teena Ricante

Hope Emerson as Rose Givens

Roland Winters as Ledbetter

Walter Baldwin as Orvy

June Storey as Ms. Boone

Tito Vuolo as Papa Rome

Mimi Aguglia as Mama Rome

Konstantin Shayne as Dr. Veroff

Howard Freeman as Sullivan

Joan Miller as Vera

Dolores Castle as Rosa

Kathleen Howard as Frances Pruett’s mother

Distributed by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Produced by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Cry of the City is a multilayered story that stays true to its characters. It involves Italian immigrants living in New York City; religious themes, specifically pertaining to Catholicism; urban poverty; and possible mob connections. It is definitely film noir, with its murders, robberies, and betrayals, but it is surprisingly hopeful—in spite of the violence and desperation that it portrays—because it shows the power of individual decisions that can turn the course of one’s life.

The opening credits appear over still shots of New York City, which orients viewers right away. The film starts with Martin Rome on what appears to be his deathbed, with a priest reading him his last rites. He’s surrounded by weeping relatives. Two detectives, Lieutenant Candella and Lieutenant Collins, show up at his hospital bed because they consider him a suspect in the DeGrazia case. Martin Rome has been in trouble with the law before: He held up a restaurant and killed a police officer, and his penchant for violence helps to explain why he is in the hospital in the first place.

A lawyer, W. A. Niles, also shows up Martin’s hospital bedside. Niles is the attorney representing Whitey Legget, the guilty party in the DeGrazia case. Niles wants Martin Rome to clear Leggett before Martin dies. But Martin Rome survives. And he denies torturing Mrs. DeGrazia, stealing her jewelry collection, and then strangling her. Lawyer W. A. Niles decides to defend Martin Rome in the DeGrazia case, but only if Martin pleads guilty to second-degree murder. Niles bribes Martin with $10,000 to confess to the crime. Martin is furious and grabs Niles, and then passes out with the effort.

(This blog post about Cry of the City gives away all the spoilers, including the ending.)

Lieutenant Candella visits Martin’s family while Martin is convalescing. He gets a firsthand glimpse of what Martin’s life is like. Many of Martin’s family members are recent Italian immigrants living in the tenements of New York City. His younger brother Tony idolizes Martin and follows his every move. Lieutenant Candella is all too familiar with this story: He comes from the same neighborhood and from very similar circumstances. Lieutenant Candella visits Martin Rome, now convalescing in the prison hospital. He tells Martin that he knows all about the neighborhood: the tenements; the hard work; no money, food, or clothes. Martin is facing a sympathetic adversary in Lieutenant Candella.

Orvy, a trustee in the prison hospital, wants to help Martin escape so his boss Ledbetter will be blamed and then fired. Orvy’s plan to help Martin escape from the prison hospital is eventually discovered, and police detectives interview him with Ledbetter present. Ledbetter loses his job because he was in charge of the prison hospital ward, and Orvy has more prison time tacked onto his sentence for his escape plot. Orvy is still happy, however, because Ledbetter will be gone and will no longer torment him. The explanation of the consequences of Orvy’s actions shows more desperation for another character, this time on the part of a prison inmate who will do anything to get rid of someone who treats him so badly.

Martin’s escape from the prison hospital is successful, however, and he visits W. A. Niles in his legal office. He learns that Niles has the DeGrazia jewels. Martin threatens him at knifepoint to reveal the identity of his female accomplice (Rose Givens) because the police suspect Martin’s girlfriend, Teena Ricante. Martin gets the information from Niles, but Niles takes a gun out of his desk drawer to kill Martin. In the ensuing struggle, Niles accidentally shoots his secretary Vera. Martin takes advantage of the moment of shock to stab Niles and kill him. Martin Rome steals the DeGrazia jewels from Niles’s office safe and takes them back to his parents’ apartment.

Martin finds Brenda Martingale because his wounds from the restaurant robbery are giving him more pain and trouble. Brenda is apparently an old acquaintance, but her relationship to Martin is not made clear. Brenda finds an unlicensed doctor to work on Martin when he passes out in the back of her car. When the doctor is finished, she takes Martin to Rose Givens’s home, who was in on the DeGrazia case with Whitey Leggett. In exchange for the jewels, Martin wants a car, $5,000, a way out of the country, and a good night’s sleep.

In the meantime, Lieutenant Candella brings in all foreign-born physicians in his jurisdiction because he knows that a man with four bullet wounds was treated in a car on 54th Street. These physicians were licensed in their home countries, but they are not licensed in the United States. Sullivan, the drunk man on the street who wanted to pick up Brenda Martingale when she was helping Martin Rome, is also in the police station to identify the doctor. This scene is one of the few where the narrative seems to have some holes in it, for instance:

◊ How did Lieutenant Candella know that Martin Rome was treated in Brenda Martingale’s car and that Sullivan saw anything at all about the episode?

◊ How did he get so many doctors working illegally in the city to the police station?

◊ How does he know that the two $100 bills in the doctor’s wallet came from the safe in Niles’s office?

It seems that viewers have to assume that all that investigative work went on already, behind the scenes and quickly. (The other possibility is that I missed some plot details, which is a good excuse to see the film again!) But the scene in the police station is important for another reason: The doctor who worked on Martin needs the money for his sick wife, and he doesn’t know what will happen to her now that he is about to be arrested. The film shows the competing interests that the police must contend with because by showing Lieutenant Candella’s sympathy for the man’s plight and his promise to see that his wife gets the help that she needs.

Tony, Martin’s brother, arranges a meeting between Martin and Teena at a church. When Martin shows up, Tony is there on the street to greet him: He will do anything to help his brother. When Martin wants Tony to take all the money in their parents’ apartment and bring it to him, however, Tony balks. It’s all the money their parents have, and that’s what he tells Martin. Martin doesn’t care what will happen to his parents; the only thing he cares about right now is leaving the country with his girlfriend Teena.

In the church, Martin tells Teena that he wants her to leave the country with him. Teena refuses because she thinks Martin has changed, and she feels that what Martin is doing is wrong. Lieutenant Candella shows up and tells Teena all the ways that Martin has used other people to evade the law: Orvy with his five more years of prison time, Brenda Martingale who sheltered Martin, the doctor who treated Martin and has a sick wife that he will no longer be able to care for himself. He tells Teena that Martin brushed them all aside, just like he is brushing aside all his family members. Teena agrees with Candella, and she leaves Martin behind in the church.

Martin agrees to leave the church with Candella, but when he sees that Candella is injured from a previous incident involving Robin Givens, Martin punches him, and Candella collapses. Martin walks off, and Candella recovers enough to shoot Martin in the back, but not before warning him to stop. (The photo above shows the chiaroscuro lighting that is one of the hallmarks of noir. It’s also a beautiful black-and-white photo of an urban setting.)

Tony Rome returns to find his brother Martin dead in the street. Tony walks away and returns to Candella, who is still alive. At this point, viewers still don’t know what Tony has decided about his parents’ money or what he will do in reaction to Martin’s death. And here is where the film shows some hope for the remaining characters: Tony admits to Candella that he couldn’t steal his parents’ money. He makes the decision to refuse his brother Martin’s request. He helps Candella into the back of a police car, and Candella consoles Tony, who gives in to his grief about the loss of his brother.

Cry of the City is a film noir, yes. But it is also a moving story about city dwellers caught in urban poverty and crime. Several of the characters and their circumstances reveal what living in these conditions means and how easy it is to succumb to bitterness and a life of crime in order to survive—and how difficult it can be to rise above it.

Cry of the City is the third film noir starring Victor Mature that I have seen. The others are Kiss of Death and I Wake up Screaming (click on each film title to see both blog posts). Victor Mature is capable of showing many layers to a character, no matter which side of the law his character may be on. I thought he was fantastic as Lieutenant Candella in Cry of the City, and he is becoming one of my noir favorites.