The Sleeping City (1950)

The Sleeping City: Directed by George Sherman. With Richard Conte, Coleen Gray, Richard Taber, John Alexander. In New York, the murder of a Bellvue Hospital intern prompts the police to send an undercover detective to investigate.

“I saw this movie once, many years ago, in NYC. It was filmed on location at Bellevue Hospital, eighty blocks south from where I did my residency training in medicine (50u0026#39;s-60u0026#39;s.) The medical attire, locations, and medical palaver are certainly dated, but that was the way it was … many years ago. The movieu0026#39;s characters (Conte et al.) were grand; an atherosclerotic, aging, Bellevue Hospital was really like that, the state-of-the-art treatments, the accomodations for patients were all shockingly interesting. In this sense, it is living history of a past medical era.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe Noir is also so nicely done: hospital corridors, primitive art deco elevators, and night shots of Gotham streets. (All these retro-images are based on a film once seen by me forty years ago!)u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf film renovators/DVD entreprenuers were to read this clip, I would recommend they consider this movie as one that many forgotten Noirs that need to be resurrected. It would be a cryptogenic discovery. Conte was a great actor, and he has a loyal following. (This movie was in his early career, and he plays a good guy!) He would be lauded later for his Godfather roles.)”