A shocking mid-town assassination results in two innocent bystanders being killed and what follows threatens to blow the lid off the ruthless big business of the organized crime world that reaches into the pockets of Washington D.C. politicians. The plot surrounds the head of one of the syndicate (Broderick Crawford) and his family life which includes his trampy mistress Marilyn Maxwell, aging mother Celia Lovsky and troubled daughter Anne Bancroft. She loves her father enormously but hates the person he is and goes into hiding to escape her legacy. Hit-man Richard Conte is assigned to find her, tame her and bring her home, but this likable killer, sympathetic to her plight, must betray boss Crawford in order to do it, choosing to romance her in hiding.
As the violence of the underworld increases, so does the threat of the downfall to this Corleone like dynasty. We have learned through "Scarface" and "The Godfather" that organized crime families have a code of honor within their clans and that they are just as normal as other families are. As Conte explains to Bancroft, "the waiter rips off the boss just as fast as the boss rips off the government", so the end justifies the means and all in a day's work. (He forgets to include, "Just don't get caught.") Yet, not every killer or crook is all black or white, so the fact that these characters have two sides to them is supposed to make them o.k.
It's hard to dislike a family man like Crawford (very loyal to his worried mama), but you just know that the downfall he faces will involve traitorous activity. There's an intense scene of two killers making their escape down a hotel elevator after taking care of one of the traitors that gets more and more crowded with each passing floor. Detectives are nearing the hotel and the expression on the killers' faces just gets more and more nervous.
Bancroft explodes in a scene with Conte after her identity has been discovered which most of her previous films lacked. You know that inside this stage trained beauty is a star waiting to emerge and it would take just the right part to turn her from "B" film actress with much stage training into the legend of stage and screen she would become in later years. The narration by Ralph Clanton is typical of "Naked City" stories and by 1955, a film noir cliché of its own. One point of interest is the presence of pin-up girl and "Phoenix City Story" actress Meg Myles in a party sequence where her fantastic figure is given more attention than she is lines.
As the violence of the underworld increases, so does the threat of the downfall to this Corleone like dynasty. We have learned through "Scarface" and "The Godfather" that organized crime families have a code of honor within their clans and that they are just as normal as other families are. As Conte explains to Bancroft, "the waiter rips off the boss just as fast as the boss rips off the government", so the end justifies the means and all in a day's work. (He forgets to include, "Just don't get caught.") Yet, not every killer or crook is all black or white, so the fact that these characters have two sides to them is supposed to make them o.k.
It's hard to dislike a family man like Crawford (very loyal to his worried mama), but you just know that the downfall he faces will involve traitorous activity. There's an intense scene of two killers making their escape down a hotel elevator after taking care of one of the traitors that gets more and more crowded with each passing floor. Detectives are nearing the hotel and the expression on the killers' faces just gets more and more nervous.
Bancroft explodes in a scene with Conte after her identity has been discovered which most of her previous films lacked. You know that inside this stage trained beauty is a star waiting to emerge and it would take just the right part to turn her from "B" film actress with much stage training into the legend of stage and screen she would become in later years. The narration by Ralph Clanton is typical of "Naked City" stories and by 1955, a film noir cliché of its own. One point of interest is the presence of pin-up girl and "Phoenix City Story" actress Meg Myles in a party sequence where her fantastic figure is given more attention than she is lines.