While the City Sleeps (1956)

Top comments

1. 

   Siskoid

   In While the City Sleeps, Fritz Lang introduces a violent serial killer, but the focus is actually on newsmen trying to scoop one another on the killer's identity and arrest so they can get a big job in their media empire. Internal politics are more important than detective work, and I couldn't always decide if it was an interesting way to tackle a crime picture, or a frustrating one. Lang's protagonist is as broken as any in noir fiction, perhaps more than most, often drunk and using his girlfriend as bait to catch the killer. Lang is a daring director, that's no surprise, and he has edge. I just wish it didn't feel like the newspaper office was next door to Don Draper's. This is a very sexist film, not just because the killer is targeting young women - bosses getting fresh, the way Nancy is treated, how all the others are cheaters, etc. - and when the script decides the killer was inspired by EC's violent crime comics, well... Let's just say I hate this thing's politics and leave it at that. 6 years 1 month ago
2. 

   AndrewB

   quote:

   You know how much stuff is written and published for the instruction of potential lawbreakers? Take the so-called comic books. Sold to kids of all ages, in drugstores.

   6 years 8 months ago
3. 

   ucuruju

   This was very good. Everybody's a sexist and men are pigs. An extremely -and disturbingly- horny film. 4 years 2 months ago

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