The Sleeping City (1950) April 23, 2007
Posted by jackal in : Films, Film Noir , trackbackI hate watching a bad copy of a film. In the murky world of film noir, it’s sometimes unavoidable, but whether they’re dirty, grainy, fuzzy or have a soundtrack that could have been soaked in acid for all the clarity it possesses, the dodgy copies tend to sink right to the bottom of my unwatched pile. A little hiss in the audio and some video buzz to the picture I can just about tolerate, though, and in this case I’m glad I did: The Sleeping City turned out to be something of a minor gem.
Bellevue Hospital, New York. The story opens with a wonderfully atmospheric noir sequence: a depressed, burned-out young doctor strolls out to the deserted waterfront for a cigarette. Without warning he is shot dead in cold blood by persons unknown. With no leads in the case, but suspecting a connection to the victim’s job, the Chief Inspector assigns Detective Rowan (Richard Conte) to go undercover at the hospital posing as a new intern. Slowly earning the confidence of the hospital staff, Rowan also finds himself beginning to fall for Ann Sebastian (Coleen Gray), former girlfriend of the murder victim. When a second intern turns up dead, and the finger of suspicion points to Rowan himself, his investigation becomes a race against time to uncover the conspiracy behind both deaths.
The Sleeping City isn’t without its faults: 40 year-old Richard Conte does look a little old to pose as a fresh-faced young doctor, there’s a snooze-inducing prologue in which Conte reassures the viewer that nothing so fiendish could ever really happen in our fine hospitals, and the story pacing is a mess. Once Conte is set up undercover at Bellevue, he spends a good half hour getting used to his job, making friends, and uncovering … nothing. Only in the third act does the mystery plot take a nice twist and start moving at breakneck speed. I don’t have any complaints however: even during the slack second act, the film is never dull. Filmed on in and around Bellevue, it’s fascinating to watch what amounts to a time capsule of hospital life in 1950.
Bolstered by the semi-documentary style, but without the ponderous narration that so often accompanies such noirs, The Sleeping City emerges as perhaps closest in tone to Dassin’s The Naked City. An atmospheric, engrossing little medical thriller, it comes highly recommended from these quarters. It’s just a shame that Universal’s film noir DVD line is dead in the water; had they continued the releases over the past couple of years, second or third tier titles such as this may well have been released by now. It deserves to be cleaned up and made available to a wider audience, ideally with some contribution from lead actress Coleen Gray. The 84 year-old is perhaps the most enthusiastic among the dwindling ranks of surviving noir stars, having made numerous appearances at film noir festivals with author Eddie Muller. She would no doubt be willing to contribute to a DVD release if asked. Here’s hoping Universal get around to it sooner rather than later.
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