Film Forum

U.S., 1949
Directed by Maxwell Shane
Starring Stephen McNally, Thelma Ritter, Barbara Whiting, Jeff Corey, Tony Curtis.
35mm. Approx. 90 min.

Early screen j.d.’s, as Brooklyn street gang “The Dukes” powerdives into trouble when a member accidentally offs a teacher. With a very young “Anthony” Curtis in his second film.

Presented with support from the Robert Jolin Osborne Endowed Fund for American Classic Cinema.

Reviews

“A very bleak tale that ends with root causes of crime and delinquency—living conditions in the slums—entirely unresolved. While so many other films of the period were quick to blame improper mothering for the problems of youth, Schulman and Shane implicitly suggest governmental action to clear out this breeding ground of delinquency, a New Deal-style solution out of favor in postwar America… There are no potential winners in City Across the River…Where was this awful place? Brooklyn, of course. In large display ads, Universal-International advertised the film as 'The Naked City—of Brooklyn!' and an 'Exposé of Brooklyn’s Cellar-Club Hot-Beds of Juvenile Delinquency.'”
– Richard Koszarski, “Keep ’em in the East”: Kazan, Kubrick, and the Postwar New York Film Renaissance