Noir Television: Naked City
Sun 10/15/2023 • 7PM PDT
Billy Wilder Theater
In-person:
Q&A with author Alan K. Rode of the Film Noir Foundation, actor-writer Michael McGreevey.
Admission is free. No advance reservations. Your seat will be assigned to you when you pick up your ticket at the box office. Seats are assigned on a first come, first served basis. The box office opens one hour before the event.
Broadcast on ABC from 1958 to 1963, the innovative police drama Naked City offered television viewers an uncommonly gritty glimpse of the mean streets and desperate citizenry of New York City. Based on Jules Dassin’s acclaimed 1948 motion picture of the same name, TV’s Naked City boasted location photography and a host of New York actors in thoughtful, original teleplays that emphasized character over action. Developed for television by Academy Award-winning writer Stirling Silliphant (In the Heat of the Night), with major contributions from story editor Howard Rodman (recipient of Writers Guild Laurel Award for lifetime achievement), Naked City was acclaimed for boldly presenting psychologically complex tales, sans the cliched cops and clean-cut endings found in genre-defining predecessors such as Dragnet.
Following cancellation in its debut season, Naked City was quickly revived with an expanded hour-long format and revamped cast starring actor Paul Burke (Valley of the Dolls) as a gentle detective who strived to understand and help those he pursued. Burke led a gifted ensemble featuring character actors Horace McMahon (Detective Story) and Harry Bellaver (No Way Out), rounded out by the strong presence of Nancy Malone (later a pioneering executive at 20th Century Fox). More often than not, these series regulars took a secondary role to the semi-anthology format of the program that highlighted a plum visiting character role every week. Over the long run of the series, a litany of future superstars would guest on the program, including Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman, just to name a few.
In addition to a wealth of acting talent, the Big Apple played a central role in Naked City as the series eschewed studio backlots for copious NYC locations captured in glorious black and white. For its noir mise-en-scène, the show’s director of photography, Jack Priestley (Across 110th Street), won consecutive primetime Emmys in 1962 and 1963 for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography for Television.
“There are eight million stories in the naked city” — join us for two of them starring Diahann Carroll (Julia) and Jack Warden (Shampoo) and a Q&A in-between episodes with Alan K. Rode of the Film Noir Foundation and actor and writer Michael McGreevey.
Program notes by Mark Quigley, John H. Mitchell Television Curator.