This time yesterday, Jean Dexter was just another pretty girl. But now she’s the marmalade on 10,000 pieces of toast. In this fashion — by being murdered — this young model becomes one of the stories of The Naked City (1948) which was not just a seminal film noir, but a new departure in many different screen-crafts.

If you were looking for brave film making in 1948, this was it — cutting edge — innovative and yet sticking to some familiar aspects and techniques, as seen its police procedural and final chase and shoot out. It was all the inspiration of Mark Hellinger, who was one of the most ground-breaking producers of the time. And directed by Jules Dassin, whose film noirs always appear in critic's top tens.

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Melodrama and Realism make a strange mix. Shot in a real diner in New York in 1947, one actor strikes and pose using skills from her silent movie and stage career, while the other one tries to blend in.

Using the streets allowed for many unusual twists and additions, many of which feature regular New Yorkers.

There is a strange and surreal moment just before the end, when the hunted criminal looks off the Williamsburg Bridge at groups of people far below, playing tennis.