The featured image is of Richard Conte before he meets his doom in Cry Of The City. That’s not a spoiler: His character was responsible for at least 3 murders and the Production Code decreed that he must die. It was a great ride while it lasted.

I’d never seen Cry Of The City until recently. It’s already been admitted to my film noir pantheon. It was directed by Robert Siodmak and joins The Killers, Criss Cross, and The File On Thelma Jordon as Siodmak films I’ve written about. Like that trio of classics, Cry Of The City is a triumph for the director, and all concerned.

The movie is a seriously modified version of this book:

Hollywood screenwriters are often rightly accused of ruining books. In this instance, Richard Murphy added characters and scenes that enhanced the story. For example, Shelley Winter’s character was not in the book:

As always, she stole every scene she was in, which was not a small feat given that she played opposite Richard Conte who played the novel’s title character, Martin Rome.

Conte’s character is a cop killer who spends the first act in a hospital bed. We meet him as his family gathers in his room and prays for his recovery. NYPD Lieutenant Victor Mature and his partner Fred Clark await their chance to speak to Conte. He’s got nothing for them.

Conte is approached by a sleazy criminal defense lawyer who urges him to plead guilty to a crime he didn’t commit. Why not? He was going to the electric chair anyway. Conte isn’t having it. Later in the film he takes care of business with the shyster played by Berry Kroeger.

Cry Of The City consists of a series of vignettes and set pieces. I don’t want to spoil them. Suffice it to say Conte escapes from jail, damages the lives of everyone he touches, and spends the last act of the movie slowly dying. The story is airtight: Everything makes sense, which is not always the case even in good films noir.

Shorter Adrastos: This feature is called pulp fiction, not pulp spoilers.

The acting is superb. Conte is steely and awesome; his Mature nemesis combines warmth with ferocity. He’s determined to get his man and eventually brings Conte’s family over to his side.

Film noir women tend to be tougher and smarter than your basic Hollywood dame. Cry Of The City has two battleaxes who contend with Conte’s mishigas. The first is Betty Garde as the hard ass nurse who cares for the wounded criminal. Even more spectacular is Hope Emerson as a chanteuse turned masseuse who has a side hustle as a fence. I am not making this up. Her scenes with Conte are chilling, especially for him:

Told you she was a battleaxe.

I’m so fond of this movie that I gave it a nickname: The Vic & Nick Show. Vic is obviously the man who played Samson. Nicholas was Richard Conte’s real first name and everyone called him Nick. The studio suits thought his name sounded too ethnic. It’s ironic after watching a movie full of Italian characters but suits gotta suit.

Grading Time: I give Cry Of The City 4 stars and an Adrastos grade of A. It’s a stone cold classic.

It’s time to get all arty and shit in our first pulp fiction movie post of 2026.

We begin with side-by-side American and German posters:

It’s time to get quadrophenic or is that quadrophonic? Here’s a period quad:

Here’s a promo quad for a UK re-release:

Conte’s sweet Italian mama gave Mature a jar of minestrone to take to her wayward son. I want some, it was something my own sweet mama made for me. Let’s all go to the lobby to see if they have any soup.

No soup. They wouldn’t even play this song for me in lieu of some nice minestrone:

Now that we’ve returned empty-handed to our seats, let’s check out some lobby cards.

We begin with a Spanish language one:

Let’s exit Shelley’s car and hop aboard the trailer:

The last word goes to Eddie Muller’s Noir Alley intro and outro: