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Cry of The City


Director: Robert Siodmak

Genre: Drama

Year: 1948

Running time: 98 minutes

Territory: International

Studio: Disney

Format: DCP

Cast: Victor Mature, Richard Conte, Fred Clarke, Debra Paget, Shelley Winters

Language options: Dialogue - EN

Adapted from the novel The Chair for Martin Rome by Henry Edward Helseth, the film tells the story of a charismatic criminal (Richard Conte) and his nemesis, Lieutenant Candella (Victor Mature), a one-time friend from the same immigrant Italian community – who is chasing him down with obsessive determination. Cry of the City opens with Rome, petty thief and cop killer, lying badly wounded in a prison hospital with the police watching over him. Soon, however, he is desperate to escape in order to clear the name of his fiancée, implicated in a jewel robbery.

Richard Conte’s dazzling performance as Rome conveys a seductive ruthlessness that contrasts with the stolid decency of Victor Mature as Lieutenant Candella, the ‘good guy’ in the film’s running battle between darkness and light. They are supported by a brilliant cast including Debra Paget (as Rome’s girlfriend Teena Riconti), Shelley Winters, and the mesmerising, scene-stealing Hope Emerson in her most remarkable incarnation as Rose Given, a monstrous masseuse with a killer touch.




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