Jandy Hardesty’s review published on Letterboxd:
Faux-documentary-style detective film, going through a homicide investigation in New York City from start to finish. The narrator treats the town almost as a character, and I think this was one of the earliest films to have exteriors shot on location, with areas like the Brooklyn Bridge getting some iconic attention. The film builds its narrative according to fiction rules, but includes a lot of vignette details that give it character (which is good, since very few of the actual characters are fleshed out much), and does a great job of emphasizing how much of police work is the drudgery of walking around seeking leads from, say, every jeweler or pawn shop in town until finally hitting on something. Obviously, much of that can be expedited somewhat now, but I liked the way the film focused on those things, making breakthroughs seem momentous and saving the thrilling excitement we expect from cop stories for the very end.
Like I said, not strong on characterization, but enough to go on, and the cops are supposed to be everymen in a way - as the narrator intones, the naked city has 8 million stories and this is just one of them.