A wonderful all-star cast fails to make this film interesting. The presentation is soap-opera-ish, amazingly flat and the actors seem like they are reading their dialogues off cue cards. D. Andrews' drunk scenes are all-too-convincing. But, having said that, Rhonda Fleming, Ida Lupino and Sally Forrest have never been photographed as well as they were in this film. Fritz Lang did this? He really stumbled, here.
shareLooks like a bunch of us just saw this on Turner this morning. This movie makes me wonder if Lang simply filmed the great work of other people in "Metropolis". "While the City Sleeps" has no real visual style to it.
shareI agree, I was dissapointed by tha lack of tension and energy, that I witnessed in his other films..."The Big Heat" for example....things perked up a bit when the killer was on the scene...(who reminded me a bit of Dennis Hopper)
shareVery true, this film was very disappointing, itmoved at a pedestrian pace, no excitement in it at all. But then again that was a hallmark of Fritz Lang's films, they either came off or they fell completely flat. The same thing happened with 'Secret Beyond the Door', it should have been an exciting thriller, but wasn't. On the other hand Woman in the Window, Fury were outstaning. There seems to be no such thing as a mediocre Lang Film, they're either great or poor.
shareYeaapp... Just imagine what would have been if Hitler never was and all those fine filmmakers remained in Europe, developing their auteurism, unmolested by Hollywood! Sweet Dreams.....
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while it wasn't as visually good as his other films, While the City Sleeps is still an entertaining film.
sharehave to agree with the negative remarks of this film, I just got done wrapping up on watching it and it disappointed me.
We can DO IT ALLLL DAY LONG, (We'll have to pay more for the light bill if we do it at night!)
Fritz Lang's German films (Destiny through Testament of Dr Mabuse) are some of the greatest films ever made. His Hollywood films are average at best. Have to wonder how much was Hollywood and how much was not having his ex-wife Thea von Harbou around doing the writing and screenplays.
shareSeeing this again after many years, I must admit I thought it was rather humorous in the wrong places and it started pretty early When Kyne Sr. dies it is so laugh out loud ludicrous and it just keeps getting sillier. The snarling killer is beyond belief and to think it was only 4 short years until "Psycho" appeared. Definite a stinker from Lang and absolutely nothing like his "Scarlet Street" and "Woman in the Window". I think he was definitely home sick by this time and wanting to return to the Fatherland.
Sacred cows make delicious hamburgers.
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I agree, this had way too much soap opera in it. The killer and Ida Lupino were the only things that made it palatable.
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I agree with the comments here, it's very dull and lacking in visual style or memorable dialogue. The acting is variable and it seems 20 mins too long for it's story, which in making the murders a sideshow and concentrating on the board-room stuff is very much in the 'who gives a damn' category. Lang surely sleepwaked through this one. Hard to believe the IMDB rating is as high as it is! 5.0 would seem quite generous...
shareI read elsewhere this film could be considered film noir. I don't see that at all. The multiple parallel romances and seductions are more of a comedy than drama. We see the killer is small snatches, and he's really a caricature of evil.
If Lang had stuck with one of the major plot elements - the serial killer, the romances, the observation on the emerging multimedia business - and mixed in the commentary on office power struggles, and the women behind the men who fight those battles, the film would have been stronger. There's just too much here to really sink your teeth into anything substantial.
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"...and that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana shaped."share
I really wanted to like it. I tried to watch it just now and I just couldn't get past half an hour of it.
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Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen =
The main problem was that it tried to do too many things. It's watchable though.
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