Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1948-04-08

arrived To-Day at the Palace.
Naked City" probably can best
be described as a semi-semi- docu-
mentary. The story Of the hunt for
the murder of q beautiful blond Of
not much better than Ill repute, 1t
was filmed on the streets Of Man.
haitian and not in q studio. It has
therefore, in spite Of q leaning
toward the melodramatic, a certain
resemblance to slice Of life.
Mr.. Hellinger's picture stands
apart from many ordinary Who
dunits by virtue Of this closer re-
semblance to real life than most of
them bear. It is not the story OF a
detective genius who solves q muir
der mystery by mental gymnastics.
1t is the story Of pair Of homicide
squad men who, more by leg-work
than head-work, track down a
killer.
NAKED City" opens upon the
throttling Of the repeatedly beauti-7
full blond, by a pair of characters
who then dump her in a bathtub full
OF water to insure her demise. Her
housekeeper comes upon the scene
the next morning and feels that the
police might be interested. This
brings 1t. Dan Muldoon BARRY
Fitzgerald) and Detective Jimmy
Halloran Don Taylor onto the
scene for their tribute to the plod-
ding efficiency Of the New York
police.
The clues In the case are slim
ones, but one by one, Detective
Halloran follows them along the
hard pavements of New York. He
interviews the doctor who pre-
scribed sleeping pills for the victim
and the model who was her close
friend. The models shady fiance is
turned up and is discovered to have
had closer interest In the dead girl
than his girl friend has suspected.
Stolen jewelry begins to appear,
pointing q finger toward the shady
young man. A body, that Of one OF
the killers, is pulled out OF the river,
to tie link with a crime Of several
years past. Out Of policemans
memory, Halloran dredges a faint
hint of clue about an athletic
young man who likes to play the
harmonica.
His legwork while identifying his
suspect, them tracking him down,
leads him high on building under
construction. through q maze Of
door -to-door, person-to-person can
wasting and finally to the pursuit OF
his quarry on the Williamsburg
Bridge. /
The writer's of Naked City" have
come UP with nothing new in the
way OF suspense and their red her
rings would confuse not even a
freshman student of the murder
mystery. Director Jules Dassin has
given his Aim a certain pace, though.
His playing of of the almost roper
torial picture of homicide team
In mundane action against an &C.
casional moment of melodramatic
violence ought to keep you inter-
ested. V
Mr.. Hellinger's casting Of NAKED
City" has added to its sernidocumen-
tary look. In support Of Mr.. Fttz-
gerald, he has, for the most part,
employed stage actors whose faces
are not as familiar as those Of the
cinema. The effect is certain
freshness. All of them are quite
capable performers, too. especially
Enid Markey, Tom Pedi, Adelaide
Klein, Howard Duff, Ted De Corsia
and House Jameson. The girl OF
the affair-the one who Is not muir
dered-is Dorothy Hart, who is q
pretty one. The young detective
Is played by Don Taylor, compe-
tent young leading man, whose ca
reer may suffer because Of q more
than slight resemblance to Tom
Drake Of course IT, NAV nrOSY,er