The Naked Street ** (1955, Farley Granger, Anthony Quinn, Anne Bancroft, Peter Graves) – Classic Movie Review 7992

The 1955 crime-romance film noir The Naked Street stars Farley Granger as Nicky Bradna, a small-time hood involved in ugly crimes and a doomed romance with Rosalie Regalzyk (Anne Bancroft), sister of New York mobster Phil Regal (Anthony Quinn).

Writer-director Maxwell Shane’s 1955 The Naked Street is a rather limp and clichéd crime-romance film noir melodrama starring Farley Granger as Nicky Bradna, a small-time hood involved in ugly crimes and a doomed romance with Rosalie Regalzyk (Anne Bancroft), the sister of crazed New York mobster Phil Regal (Anthony Quinn), who frames Nicky (Granger) for a killing.

On Death Row, Nicky spills the beans on Phil Regal (Quinn) to reporter Joe McFarland (Peter Graves) a journalist at the New York Chronicle.

The capable, talented and appealing actors work hard to lift it – Granger, Quinn and Bancroft are all particularly well cast and compelling. But the contrived, over-complicated plot never really persuades and Maxwell Shane’s flaccid screenplay, based on a story by Leo Katcher, more or less does the movie in.

The Naked Street is worth trying for the cast, though, and especially for Quinn’s lusty show-stopping turn as the cruel mobster, but also for Granger and Bancroft.

Also in the cast are Else Neft [Else Bäck], Sara Berner, Jerry Paris, Jeanne Cooper, Frank Sully, John Dennis, Angela Stevens, Joy Terry [Joyce Terry], G Pat Collins, Mario Siletti, Whit Bissell, Jeanne Cooper, James Flavin, Harry Harvey, Judge Stanley, Joe Turkel, Jerry Hausner and Harry O Tyler.

The Naked Street is directed by Maxwell Shane, runs 84 minutes, is made by Edward Small Productions, is released by United Artists, is written by Maxwell Shane, based on a story by Leo Katcher, is shot in black and white by Floyd Crosby, is produced by Edward Small and is scored by Emil Newman and Ernest Gold.

In his 2007 autobiography Include Me Out, Granger said he was pleased to work with Quinn and Bancroft but judged the film as ‘preachy, trite, and pedestrian’.

The cast are Farley Granger as Nicholas ‘Nicky’ Bradna, Anthony Quinn as Phil Regal, Anne Bancroft as Rosalie Regalzyk, Peter Graves as Joe McFarland, Else Neft as Mrs. Regalzyk, Sara Berner as Millie Swadke, Jerry Paris as Latzi Franks, Mario Siletti as Antonio Cardini, James Flavin as Attorney Michael X Flanders, Whit Bissell as District Attorney Blaker, Joe Turkel as Shimmy, Joy Terry [Joyce Terry] as Margie, Harry Tyler [Harry O Tyler] as I. Barricks, Jerry Hausner as Louie, Lee van Cleef as Harry Goldisch, Jeanne Cooper as Evelyn, Frank Sully, John Dennis, Angela Stevens, G Pat Collins, Mario Siletti, James Flavin, Harry Harvey, Judge Stanley, Joe Turkel, and Jerry Hausner.

It was released on 30 September 1955 in New York City.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7992

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Farley Granger in Rope (1949).