Cry of the City

“Fat old women with jewels who fight to keep them the same way they fight the years that make them ugly,” says the enormous, mannish masseuse named Rose played by Hope Emerson, one of many highlights of Robert Siodmak’s exceptional Cry of the City. An accomplice in a recent jewel heist who got away scot-free, Rose and her money are one of Martin Rome’s (Richard Conte) possible escape hatches: as a cop murderer and escaped convict, Rome is desperate to leave the country with his girlfriend Teena (Debra Paget). Victor Mature plays police lieutenant Candella, Rome’s childhood friend who grew up on the right side of the law; now, he finds himself hunting for Rome while trying to convince Rome’s younger brother Tony (Tommy Cook) to reject the criminal life. The plot moves briskly with a variety of characters moving in and out — Shelley Winters as Rome’s ex-girlfriend Brenda, Konstantin Shayne as an unlicensed doctor who tends to Rome’s wounds, Betty Gaarde as the kind nurse who risks her job to help Rome’s girl — and Alfred Newman’s “Street Scene,” reused in the musical scores for more than a half-dozen noirs, once again serves as a brassy refrain. The cat and mouse game between Rome and Candella intensifies, both men seriously injured and losing steam, the dark, urban atmosphere omnipresent, blurring any remaining boundary between right and wrong.