The Naked Street (1955)

Director:

Maxwell Shane

Writers:

Leo Katcher (story)
Maxwell Shane (writer)

Release Date:

August 1955 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Film-Noir | Drama

Plot:

A mobster (Quinn) springs a condemmed murderer (Grainger) because he got his sister (Bancroft) pregnant.

Cast

Farley Granger	...	Nicholas 'Nicky' Bradna
Anthony Quinn	...	Phil Regal
Anne Bancroft	...	Rosalie Regalzyk
Peter Graves	...	Joe McFarland
Else Neft	...	Mrs. Regalzyk
Sara Berner	...	Millie Swadke
Jerry Paris	...	Latzi Franks
Mario Siletti	...	Antonio Cardini
James Flavin	...	Attorney Michael X. Flanders
Whit Bissell	...	Dist. Atty. Blaker
Joe Turkel	...	Shimmy
Joyce Terry	...	Margie (as Joy Terry)
Harry Tyler	...	I. Barricks
Jerry Hausner	...	Louie
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
G. Pat Collins	...	Mr. Hough (uncredited)
James Conaty	...	Judge #3 (uncredited)
Jeanne Cooper	...	Evelyn Shriner (uncredited)
John Dennis	...	Big Eddie (uncredited)
George Eldredge	...	Judge #2 (uncredited)
Harry Harvey	...	Judge Roder (uncredited)
John Indrisano	...	Regal's henchman (uncredited)
Thomas E. Jackson	...	Sing Sing guard (uncredited)
Byron Kane	...	Judge #1 (uncredited)
Jack Kenny	...	Detective (uncredited)
Mickey Knox	...	Man in crowd (uncredited)
Frank Kreig	...	Ollie (uncredited)
John Larch	...	Police desk sergeant (uncredited)
Jackie Loughery	...	Francie (uncredited)
Frank Marlowe	...	Police detective (uncredited)
Sid Melton	...	Hermie (uncredited)
Mort Mills	...	Finney (uncredited)
Barney Phillips	...	Callan (Nicky's lawyer) (uncredited)
Joe Ploski	...	Poker player (uncredited)
Joey Ray	...	Detective (uncredited)
Dick Ryan	...	Police detective (uncredited)
Maxwell Shane	...	Felon in Police Photo (uncredited)
Angela Stevens	...	Janet (uncredited)
Frank Sully	...	Nutsy (uncredited)
Lee Van Cleef	...	Harry Goldish (uncredited)
Sammy Weiss	...	Lennie (uncredited)
Than Wyenn	...	Rosalie's doctor (uncredited)

Directed by
Maxwell Shane

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Leo Katcher		story
Maxwell Shane		writer

Produced by
Edward Small	....	producer

Original Music by
Ernest Gold
Emil Newman

Cinematography by
Floyd Crosby

Film Editing by
Grant Whytock

Art Direction by
Ted Haworth

Music Department
Emil Newman	....	musical director

Production Companies

• Edward Small Productions (as Fame Productions)

Distributors

• United Artists (1955) (USA) (theatrical)
• United Artists (1956) (West Germany) (theatrical)

Also Known As:

The Brass Ring (USA) (alternative title)
The Mobster (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

84 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:18 (nf) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Company:

Edward Small Productions

Bancroft, Quinn and Granger chief attractions in crime drama plus sociology lesson

Maxwell Shane's The Naked Street opens with a `torch' murder under the low-rent end of the Brooklyn Bridge; it's a hit ordered by mob boss Anthony Quinn. Quinn finds family problems vying for his attention, however. His kid sister, Ann Bancroft, has been left pregnant by a murderer on death row (Farley Granger, who here could double for Eddie Fisher at about the same time). Quinn intimidates the original witnesses and secures Granger's release in order for him to make an honest woman out of Bancroft.

Investigative reporter Peter Graves, meanwhile, is working on an exposé of Quinn's underworld empire. He gets nowhere, however, until Quinn's quick fix of his sister's dilemma starts to unravel. Her baby is still-born (probably due to all the sherry her groom bought her to brighten her confinement), leading Granger to start to womanize and brush up his criminal skills. This only provokes Quinn, who tries to undo his earlier meddling by meddling some more....

The Naked Street blows in some high-minded social commentary in an attempt to supply moral uplift to an otherwise gritty crime drama. In that, it keeps step with the fads of the mid- to late-fifties, with many reminders of the `tenement' origins of criminals (despite the fact that, as here, these monsters' mothers are invariably old-country saints). And the plot's ironies, though obvious, hold interest.

But Shane, who six years earlier had done the more authentic City Across The River along similar lines, can be a clumsy director. He lets too much of the story get told through Grave's voice-over narration rather than telling it himself, on film. And there are nagging little lapses: there's a phony hijack in which a car runs a truck five times its size off the road; at an illegal all-night poker game in the back room of an ice-cream shop, the neon sign blazes `Millie's' to beckon every cop in the five boroughs. Still, Quinn does well in one of his last `heavy' roles, and early Bancroft offers glimpses of the fame to come. But the puzzle is, what was there in this role tempting enough to lure Granger back from Europe?