While the City Sleeps
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| While the City Sleeps | |
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 While the City Sleeps movie poster |
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| Directed by | Fritz Lang |
| Produced by | Bert E. Friedlob |
| Written by | Charles Einstein (novel) Casey Robinson |
| Starring | Dana Andrews Rhonda Fleming |
| Music by | Herschel Burke Gilbert |
| Cinematography | Ernest Laszlo |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures Inc. |
| Release date(s) | May 16, 1956 (U.S. release) |
| Running time | 100 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
While the City Sleeps is a 1956 film directed by Fritz Lang. The newspaper drama was based on "The Bloody Spur" by Charles Einstein. The film weaves together two stories- a serial killer hunt and the competition for a newspaper's editorship.
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[edit] Plot
Power struggles between executives ensue after the death of media magnate Amos Kyne, who turned over power to his sole heir, his foppish son (Vincent Price). He decides, instead of running the newspaper company himself, to let the heads of the three divisions of the newspaper to fight it out for control. Meanwhile, New York women become the prey of a serial killer. One of the three, newspaper editor John Daily Griffith, has an ally in high-profile reporter Edward Mobley, who is working on the biggest story of the day: "The Lipstick Killer," a serial murder, burglar and sex fiend who is terrorizing the city.
[edit] Reaction
Dark City: The Film Noir by Spencer Selby calls While the City Sleeps an "Offbeat thriller which is one of the most original and provocative noir newspaper films."
[edit] Featured cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Dana Andrews | Edward Mobley |
| Rhonda Fleming | Dorothy Kyne |
| George Sanders | Mark Loving, KNS Chief |
| Howard Duff | Lt. Burt Kaufman |
| Thomas Mitchell | John Day Griffith (Sentinel managing editor) |
| Vincent Price | Walter Kyne |
| Sally Forrest | Nancy Liggett |
| John Barrymore Jr. | Robert Manners |
| James Craig | 'Honest' Harry Kritzer |
| Ida Lupino | Mildred Donner |
[edit] Trivia
- The sequence depicting the New York subway was actually filmed in the Los Angeles subway.
[edit] References
2 Spencer Selby (1984). Dark City: The Film Noir. McFarland Classic. ISBN 0-7864-0478-7.
