Cry of The City
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.