The Sleeping City (1950)

The Sleeping City is a 1950 film noir, shot in semidocumentary style set in and shot at New York's Bellevue Hospital. It was directed by George Sherman and features Richard Conte, Coleen Gray and Richard Taber.

The film is notable for its dark and evocative photography, above-par performances by featured players and taut script by Jo Eisinger, best known for his script of Night and the City. It was one of the few motion pictures of the era to be shot entirely on location.

The Sleeping City is viewed by critics as one of the best examples of the use of betrayal -- in this instance, several layers of betrayal -- as a noir plot device. However, as is typical in this genre/style, the film is simply plotted and economical in its characterizations.

The movie begins with an unusual prologue, featuring Conte, to assure the audience that the story is "completely fictional" and did not take place at Bellevue or New York City. The prologue was inserted at the insistence of New York mayor William O'Dwyer, who had objected to the script as besmirching the reputation of the city-run hospital.

Synopsis

An intern is shot mysteriously on an East River pier adjoining Bellevue Hospital. The chief investigating detective views this as a difficult case, so with the cooperation of the Commissioner of Hospitals he assigns a detective who had been a medical corpsman, Fred Rowan of the Confidential Squad, to go undercover as intern "Fred Gilbert."

Actors