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While the City Sleeps 1956 |
Review by Jonathan Cornwell |
Directed by Fritz Lang
NR, 100 min. |
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Starring: Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, George Sanders, Howard Duff, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price, Sally Forrest, John D. Barrymore, James Craig, Ida Lupino, Robert Warwick
Producer: Bert Friedlob
Screenplay: Casey Robinson
Distributor: RKO Radio Pictures
Released: 1956 |
Rating:
  (out of ) |
Fritz Lang's last great film, While the City Sleeps, focuses on the relationship between rival factions in the media - journalism
in the form of television and newsprint. The never-ending rat race to be the first to report the big scoop of the day is
clearly communicated to the viewer through characters much like themselves - people who scratch and climb over one another
to get noticed, to get the big promotion. Lang's interest in the media can be traced to his masterpiece M, one of the cinema's
greatest films. But while M dealt with the criminal underground hunting a psychopathic killer on the loose, here it's the media that
fuels the fire to catch the newly titled serial killer. Released at a time when audiences were focused on other films in the
genre, While the City Sleeps arguably trumps most of them with a director who understands the conditions of the human
heart - in the form of good, bad, and evil.
Known as one of Lang's personal favorites, the film delves into issues of morality and ethics in the workplace. As competing
colleagues in the media, the characters' motivations stem from disparate ethical stances. While one news editor has a chance
to forego procedure and take the glory for a story, he succumbs to his own standard of doing the right thing - in this case
giving the story to his competing superior. At the same time, the head of the newswire service steps on anyone he can find
in order to impress the new boss. Finally, an unscrupulous photographer avoids direct competition by seducing the boss'
wife, who in turn lobbies for his promotion. Then there's the poor television anchor who merely wants to find the killer,
regardless of who comes out on top during the competition for a job that he's already turned down. Lang uses these
individual motivations to paint a portrait of the human condition, from all sides of the equation.
A serial killer (John Drew Barrymore) is terrorizing New York City with his latest horrific murder. Amos Kyne's (Robert Warwick)
media empire, which includes The New York Sentinel newspaper, a television station, a photo service, and a newswire service,
is hot on the trail of the killer's identity. After Amos' sudden death from illness, his much maligned son, Walter (Vincent Price),
concocts a plan to build respect among the heads of each branch of the company via a new corporate position that essentially
runs the business. The contenders are the newswire head (George Sanders), the newspaper managing editor (Thomas Mitchell),
and a photoman (James Craig). Television anchor Edward Mobley (Dana Andrews) is more interested in catching the killer
than any competition for a job he considers beyond his reach. He uses his broadcasts to threaten the killer, thereby
using his fiancée (Sally Forest) as bait to lure the killer to the authorities.
While the City Sleeps refers to the neverending work of the media that goes largely unnoticed by the average city-dweller.
Competition in the workplace is nothing new, however, at times the viewer becomes sympathetic towards the average beat-writer
trying to get a leg up on his peers. Stabbing others in the back to take credit for their accomplishments is commonplace
in the media, or at least Lang sees it that way. He introduces the perfect element, in this case an irresistible story, to set
human nature in motion. Breaking a story as big as the identity of a serial killer brings out the worst in people - or is this
just perceived to be so? Lang goes to great lengths to introduce all viewpoints and the resulting actions taken by their
motivations.
There's a scene near the end of the picture where Mobley chases the killer down a subway tunnel that seems like an
allegory for the media chasing a story to the brink of irrationality. Mobley risks death to capture a killer that's already
on the run and more or less finished. But is it really Mobley's ultimate acceptance of who he is and what he does? His
laissez-faire attitude towards the big promotion earlier in the film is only hiding his own desire to hold the position -
subconsciously he wants to earn the job, not merely be given the job because he's the lesser of all evils involved.
It's this type of character conflict that Lang is wrestling with himself. It's also what makes the film so memorable.
The pitch-perfect performances by Andrews and Mitchell give Lang the ammunition to fire the multiple paradoxes in the film.
Andrews' Mobley is maybe the most human of the bunch - conflicted, weak, vulnerable, but also vigilent and dependable.
Mitchell plays the newspaper editor with a sense of right and wrong, something that his competition lacks. Rhonda Fleming
plays Walter's wife with an agenda of her own, something that would have been interesting to further explore. And
though Vincent Price is only sparingly used, his ever-present solemnity gives Walter a commanding presence.
It's fitting that Lang's last great effort would focus on the same elements that made his early films so gripping. Relationships
between those in power and those on the cusp of it. In his finest film, Metropolis, he explores the world of two separate
groups, one above and one below the surface of a great city, with the people of the underworld revolting against their
oppressive neighbors above ground. There are clear similarities to this in many of his films; here, the servants conspire
against one another to achieve the same objective - identify a killer. In reality, they are merely fighting to reach the daylight,
to reach the fresh air that's located above their current positions. Mobley realizes this conflict early on and tries to focus
on only the killer, but in the end he capitulates to his own human need for advancement. It's this battle between
realization of a situation and one's own needs that pushes Lang to create a classic like While the City Sleeps.
© 2002 Jonathan Cornwell
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| Masterpiece - Classic; Movie perfection |
| Excellent - A Must See; One of the year's best films |
| Good - Highly Recommended |
| Fair - Worth seeing |
| Average - Viewable, but not recommended |
| Below average - View at own risk |
| Poor - Avoid at all costs |
| Very poor - An embarassment to the film industry |
| Zero | Awful - One of the worst films ever made |
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