A really good looking procedural that benefits tremendously from on-location shooting. New York City appears idyllic and dreamlike, filmed in its natural 40s environment. Photographer William H. Daniels deservedly won an Oscar for his beautiful, classically composed cinematography. It is the first reason to see The Naked City. The second is to watch the unfolding of the murder case with its episodic nature of collecting information, influential to filmmakers like Alan J. Pakula or later with David Fincher. The story's easy to follow with the help of the smooth voice of a nameless narrator. The developments play realistic to the period, pull no punches and are above all quite informative in conveying 60+ year old investigating where tons of leg work and man power took precedent in an age before computers.

I wanted to give this a 3.5 but the last 20 minutes were too good to look past. Though the plot is pretty great, it has too much poor acting and stilted dialogue to make the first half work as well as it should have. The trademark narration added a lot of character to the film, while some of the attempts at making the movie feel like a world captured on film (the thoughts of the average person on the street, mostly) came across as unnecessary and awkward. But god damn if that ending wasn't riveting

This film is hard to describe.

On one hand it's a police procedural movie with echoes of film noir... but it is also kind of a comedy. The narration is from the perspective of the film's producer, telling you about the film while you watch it - kind of like a documentary. People on this site seem to complain about this aspect, but I found the narration to be original and kept the pace going as the film alternates between goofy and serious.

@Camdun_Roar: The precursor to all procedurals. The CSI work of the time was cool but I could have done without all the voice over 7.5/10

Pretty entertaining genre film, with unforgettable moments in the noir tradition.

What a peculiar movie. At first the narration kept me disconnected and the acting was bad or just too goofy in tone. But the confidently consistent style kept growing until I was completely swept away by the end. Having the narrator talk to the characters shouldn't work, and it's possible the movie had been better off without it, but it helps set the mundane tone for the police investigation as just another day in the Big Apple.

The on-location scenes all across New York are great in adding to that tone and give the story some roots. The story itself could take place anywhere (as evidenced in the game L.A. Noire), but here it seems as much a story about the city as it is about the characters.

This has been on my Netflix queue for months now, and finally I decided to watch it. I was surprised to find how fun and entertaining it was. I expected a grimy noir and instead got this humorous investigation. Although the investigation is the main focus of this movie, the city often takes the attention as this is filmed on location. It portrays many of the faces of New York City. The investigation weaves itself throughout the city as new people and location are brought into play; all of it headed by a witty and very likable detective. The cast was either good or bad. Some of the dialogue was badly written, and some of the actors were bad or not even really actors to begin with. Often I think narrators are annoying, but this one complements the simple story well.

This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Pretty movie, but the narrator takes away from it. Still enjoyable story and characters.

There is something refreshing about a police procedural from 1948 shot entirely on location (well not entirely true, as there are some rear projection shots). You get this rare opportunity to see what New York really looked like in the late 40's which is great because the city plays a very important part in this film. Sure, the main focus is aimed at a particular murder case, but we also get to see what's around the case - people from different social classes doing their thing and that is the reason why this movie left a big impression on me. You can clearly see how this movie influenced many future filmmakers and TV producers.

Now I have seen six movies directed by Jules Dassin and he hasn't disappointed me yet.