I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Instant Favorite.

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

De gustibus non est disputandum...Taste is not a matter for argument. The great director's next-to-last American-made movie is either a fine example of the man's social criticism or a tedious melodrama. Review "numbers" that we amateur critics have given the film range from a barely watchable 4 to an enthusiastic 10. Talk about a lack of consensus.The twin plot lines concern a fight over management of a news media empire and the hunt for a young male serial murderer of attractive women. The element connecting the two is the contest among executives set up by the callow new owner of the company, the ne'er do well son of the hard-working founder. The "contest" offers the position of second-in-command to the newsman who solves the mystery of the murderer.The newsmen are a mixture of high-mindedness and venality, genuine romance and shabby use of women. I don't have a clue as to the background of my fellow reviewers, so I can't say why some found insightfulness in Lang's portrayal of a modern news media company while others, such as this reviewer, saw nothing beyond the obvious. It was the longer scenes between male and female that proved hardest for me to watch, and not because Lang was making an unpleasant point. To be blunt, the scenes seemed ridiculous. We've all seen films with lots of snappy dialogue between men and women, in which realism takes a back seat to cleverness. There's nothing snappy in these scenes.If one is curious, one might want to watch this movie to see how unfamiliarity with the everyday behavior of people from a different culture than a director's own distorts the director's attempt to produce realistic scenes.

WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS is a film noir-cum-thriller from directorial maestro Fritz Lang, who of course made one of the greatest early serial killer movies in M. Sadly, this is a far cry from that movie, although it still proves worthwhile for fans of both the film noir genre and serial killer movies in general. Lang's directorial style is solid if unspectacular, but what lets this film down a bit is the script.Now, the serial killer storyline is very good and well handled. John Drew Barrymore is an effectively sleazy villain and you can truly believe the madness in his eyes. The scenes of him stalking and attacking women are as disturbing as you'd want. And the other thriller elements of the plot, including a top chase scene, are expertly staged as you'd expect from Lang.No, the problem is that to sustain the running time, the scriptwriter all this extra stuff exploring the internal politics of a newspaper office. Thus we get Vincent Price (on admitted top form) as the proprietor, and a bunch of others (including the reliable George Sanders) hot on the story. Dana Andrews's lead sometimes barely gets a look in. I appreciate all the media satire stuff, but it overwhelms the story at times and drags it down to a sluggish pace. Even screen lovelies like Rhonda Fleming and Ida Lupino barely get a look-in. These flaws don't make WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS a bad film, because it's still more than presentable, but it could have been up there with the best of Hitchcock had it focused more on the killer storyline.

Robert Warwick appears and then dies at the beginning of While The City Sleeps. He's a Rupert Murdoch type media tycoon and he's left his empire to his rather unsteady son Vincent Price. Price is second generation wealth and looking to put his personal stamp on the empire bequeathed to him. But he'll need someone who really knows the business and three candidates present themselves, Thomas Mitchell, George Sanders, and James Craig. All of them use fair and foul means to gain the prize. Craig's is the foulest of all, he's carrying on with Price's tramp of a wife in Rhonda Fleming hoping the two of them will influence Price.We've got a couple of other players in this field also. Dana Andrews sides with Mitchell who edits the local tabloid similar to the Murdoch run New York Post. Andrews has won Pulitzer Prizes the two of them decide to aid the police in capturing a serial killer before that term came into use who is targeting young women. Andrews baits the killer in his nightly newscast and also happens to mention he's just gotten engaged to Sally Forrest who works as George Sanders's secretary in the wire service portion of the empire. In a really slick piece of casting against type Sanders while having a more or less undefined role, comes off as the most sympathetic character of the lot.Andrews ostensibly the hero is a real creep for using his girl friend Forrest as bait even with the connivance of his friend Detective Howard Duff in charge of the investigation. It nearly goes wrong.John Drew Barrymore who had an odd career being the holder of that great name of the theater. In 1956 people had memories of his father and probably expected a classical actor in that vein. Instead Barrymore had he not had that name might have found himself a niche in Hollywood with the newer post war rebel types like James Dean or Marlon Brando. This film is one of his best performances as the woman hating, mother fixated serial killer in a career that quite frankly featured a lot of junk.In the few scenes she's in, but stealing every one of them is Ida Lupino as an acid tongued gossip columnist in the Hedda Hopper tradition. She in her way gets the final say on who becomes top dog.While The City Sleeps is one of the most cynical and jaded films ever to come out of Hollywood. Fritz Lang mixed a really great cast together with a great script and got quite an indictment of the news business, predating Network by 20 years. His happy ending for Andrews and Forrest didn't ring true, but other than that a great piece of work.

Fritz Lang's personal favorite of all his films is, unfortunately, not his best, but he adds a cynical twist to the familiar story of a psychopath pursued by a headline-hungry press by showing more sympathy for the Freudian torments of the killer than for the scheming newsmen out to apprehend him. No one is completely innocent, least of all the supposedly white-hatted journalists, who would rather compete for personal kudos than bring a serial killer to justice: sharks in a feeding frenzy exhibit better ethics. Goodness prevails, in the guise of square-jawed hero Dana Andrews, but the film is sparked more by the presence of Vincent Price as the Machiavellian, milquetoast media tycoon who exploits 'the lipstick murders', and by Ida Lupino as a gossip column queen willing to sell her soul to the highest bidder. The actress couldn't have had much choice about her role: in film noir women were usually relegated to playing good girls or tough cookies, and the former position was already filled.