Siddhesh Joshi (Editor)

While the City Sleeps (1956 film)

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
7
/
10
1
Votes
Alchetron7
7
1 Ratings
100
90
80
71
60
50
40
30
20
10
Rate This

Rate This

Director
  
Music director
  
Duration
  

Language
  
English

7/10
IMDb

Genre
  
Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

Screenplay
  
Country
  
United States

While the City Sleeps (1956 film) movie poster
Release date
  
May 16, 1956 (1956-05-16) (United States)

Based on
  
the novel The Bloody Spur by Charles Einstein

Writer
  
Casey Robinson (screenplay), Charles Einstein (novel)

Cast
  
(Edward Mobley), (Dorothy Kyne), (Mark Loving, KNS Chief), (Lt. Burt Kaufman), (John Day Griffith (Sentinel managing editor)), (Walter Kyne)

Similar movies
  
The Asphalt Jungle
,
The Big Sleep
,
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
,
Detour
,
They Live by Night
,
Out of the Past

Tagline
  
Suspense as startling as a strangled scream!

A serial killer is on the loose in New York City. Dubbed "The Lipstick Killer," he has also strangely become the center of a power struggle between three division chiefs in a media empire. The directive from their inexperienced boss, Walter Kyne (Vincent Price), is simple: Whoever catches the killer gets promoted to executive editor. But newspaper editor John Day Griffith (Thomas Mitchell) has one distinct advantage in the form of crack reporter Edward Mobley (Dana Andrews).

Contents

While the City Sleeps (1956 film) movie scenes

While the City Sleeps is a 1956 film noir directed by Fritz Lang. Written by Casey Robinson, the newspaper drama was based on The Bloody Spur by Charles Einstein, which depicts the story of "Lipstick Killer" William Heirens. The film features Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, George Sanders, Howard Duff, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price, John Drew Barrymore and Ida Lupino.

Newspaper men compete against each other to find a serial killer dubbed "The Lipstick Killer"

Plot

While the City Sleeps (1956 film) movie scenes WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS

A power struggle ensues after the death of media magnate Amos Kyne, who turned his corporation over to his sole heir, foppish son Walter. Rather than run the company himself Walter decides to let the heads of its three divisions fight it out. Their assignment is to score an exclusive story on a serial killer terrorizing women in New York the Kyne organizations newspaper dubs "The Lipstick Killer". Whoever identifies him before the police will be rewarded the title of executive director.

While the City Sleeps (1956 film) movie scenes While the City Sleeps 1956 A serial killer dubbed the Lipstick Killer is on the loose in New York attacking women and when media mogul Amos Kyne dies

One of the three, newspaper editor Jon Day Griffith, has an ally in high-profile Kyne reporter and television personality Edward Mobley. While wire-service chief Mark Loving recruits star writer Mildred Donner as eyes and ears, a third contender, Harry Kritzer, carries on a secret affair with Walter Kynes wife Dorothy.

Mobley becomes engaged to Lovings secretary, Nancy Liggett. Receiving inside information from his police friend Lt. Kaufman, Mobley taunts the killer on TV using Nancy as bait.

In the end, the lives of Nancy and Dorothy, who live across the hall from one another (since Dorothy happens to rent a discreet apartment in the same building in order to carry out the affair with Harry), are placed in serious danger. While one of the three contenders for the executive directors job wins the contest, another has a surprise in store.

Cast

  • Dana Andrews as Edward Mobley
  • Rhonda Fleming as Dorothy Kyne
  • George Sanders as Mark Loving
  • Howard Duff as Lt. Burt Kaufman
  • Thomas Mitchell as Jon Day Griffith
  • Vincent Price as Walter Kyne
  • Sally Forrest as Nancy Liggett
  • John Drew Barrymore as Robert Manners (Lipstick Killer)
  • James Craig as "Honest" Harry Kritzer
  • Ida Lupino as Mildred Donner
  • Robert Warwick as Amos Kyne
  • Mae Marsh as Mrs. Manners
  • Ralph Peters as Gerald Meade
  • Sandy White as Judith Felton
  • Larry J. Blake as Police Desk Sergeant
  • Background

    The film was based on the Charles Einstein novel "Bloody Spurt" which had been optioned by the producer Bert Fiedlob. The script was originally known as News is Made at Night. It was made for United Artists.

    The city in the film is supposed to be New York, but the film was shot in Los Angeles. In so doing, they used the Pacific Electric Belmont trolley tunnel under downtown LA and interurban cars with steps and trolley poles to represent the heavyweight cars of the New York City Subway rolling stock, which are drastically different in appearance.

    Several propssome of which featured a large K in a circlewere recycled from Citizen Kane, which RKO had made 15 years earlier, and may have prompted the use of the name "Kyne."

    The film was reportedly sold outright to RKO for a profit of $500,000.

    Critical response

    Film critic Bosley Crowther liked the film, especially the acting. He wrote: "Since it is full of sound and fury, murder, sacred and profane love and a fair quota of intramural intrigue, a viewer is left wondering if the tycoons of the giant Kyne publishing combine ever bother to cover such mundane stories as the weather. But while this journalistic jamboree is more flamboyant than probable, a tight and sophisticated script by Casey Robinson and a clutch of professional performances make While the City Sleeps a diverting and workmanlike fiction."

    Time Out film reviews wrote of the film, "Lang makes inspired use of glass-walled offices, where all is seen and nothing revealed, and traces explicit parallels between Andrews and the murderer. Langs most underrated movie."

    Home media

    Unavailable on home video since a VHS release in the 1990s, While the City Sleeps is now available on DVD in the UK by Exposure Cinema, and in the U.S. from the Warner Archive Collection on DVD-R. Internet review site DVD Beaver compares releases, citing the Exposure release as superior due to the Warner Archive release being "Single-layered and significantly softer. It also has some brightness boosting." The review also states that "There are no extras, not even the trailer that is available on Exposure disc". The Exposure Cinema release is open-matte, while the Warner Archive release is in Superscope.

    References

    While the City Sleeps (1956 film) Wikipedia
    While the City Sleeps (1956 film) IMDb While the City Sleeps (1956 film) themoviedb.org