Cry of the City

In Cry of the City, actors Victor Mature and Richard Conte met in front of the camera for the only time in their careers. Mature plays police lieutenant Vittorio Candella, while Conte appears as the seasoned criminal Martin Rome (originally it was supposed to be the other way around). Although both men come from the same socioeconomic background and grew up in the same Italian neighborhood in New York, their fates have brought them to opposite sides of the law. The film is based on a central moral dilemma found in earlier Hollywood gangster films such as Manhattan Melodrama (1934) and Angels with Dirty Faces (1938). Robert Siodmak shot part of the film on location in New York, and although the result was very successful, it was not a positive experience for him: „I prefer the studio. One has much more control over action and artists.“ Hope Emerson is unmissable in one of the supporting roles, appearing in a similarly disturbing role two years later in the prison noir Caged. (mh)