Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		2.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

The Sleeping City Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 10, 2022

George Sherman's "The Sleeping City" (1950) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include exclusive new audio commentary by critic Imogen Sara Smith and vintage trailer for the film. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

“Universal International, the studio that gave you The Naked City, now brings you The Sleeping City, a film masterpiece that hits with the same dramatic impact.” This quoted introduction comes from a vintage trailer that is included on Kino Lorber’s Blu-ray release of George Sherman’s The Sleeping City, and I decided to highlight it because it reveals exactly how Universal International wanted it to be seen, which is as a very close relative of Jules Dassin’s classic film. Obviously, this isn’t surprising because The Naked City turned out to be quite the sensation and at the time studio bosses believed that film noirs with a social conscience could be the next big thing. However, while film noirs with a social conscience did become a permanent addition to the stylish genre, only a few replicated the success of The Naked City.

There are a couple of very particular reasons why. The biggest was their frequent use as propaganda vehicles promoting very particular social and political messaging that compromised their authenticity. This wasn’t a surprising development either because there was already an identical trend on the other side of the Atlantic as well. In America, the studios simply had bigger stars and greater resources that allowed them to make these films more attractive than their European counterparts. The other important reason was the ability of the studios to carefully market these films alongside the classic and very successful film noirs and make and sell their supposed social awareness as an entirely organic development. (Of course, the reality was very different. In some of these films the messaging was so scripted that they essentially functioned as paid promo pieces for various important parties. Joseph H. Lewis’ The Undercover Man, with Glenn Ford at his prime, is one such very carefully scripted film. The political films, which were straightforward propaganda films, usually accommodated the idea that America was being quietly overrun by communists and without proper action its collapse was inevitable. Good examples of such straightforward propaganda films are The Red Menace and Walk East on Beacon!).

The Sleeping City is free of conventional politics but like the straightforward propaganda films it was conceived to educate in a very particular manner about a supposedly troubling reality. It is why before the drama in it is initiated its star, Richard Conte, steps in front of Sherman’s camera and states its intentions.

Immediately after that Conte becomes an undercover agent who has to track down an elusive killer in Bellevue Hospital in New York City. Having been carefully trained to think, talk, and act like a doctor, Conte then enters the hospital as a new transfer from LA and, while performing his duties, begin to look for clues that could point him in the right direction. He quickly befriends Coleen Gray, who plays a young and single ward nurse, and through her learns that the killer’s victim, another doctor from the hospital, was overwhelmed by serious personal problems. Shortly after the killer strikes again, Conte is approached by Richard Taber’s elevator operator and made an offer that dramatically changes the progression of his secret investigation.

Sherman and cinematographer William Miller shot on location at Bellevue Hospital and this is essentially what makes The Sleeping City an intriguing film -- it is a very good time capsule with some lovely visuals from inside the hospital and the busy area around it. While Conte is predictably good, the drama that flourishes during the secret investigation is pretty straightforward.

The other interesting aspect of the production is the manner in which the film’s social conscience is marketed to its audience. It is a lot more important than its noir identity, which is precisely why various parts of it look as if they were extracted from an early documentary.

The dramatic soundtrack, which would have been absolutely impossible to use in such a documentary, was composed by the prolific Frank Skinner (The Suspect, Ride the Pink Horse).

The Sleeping City Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Sleeping City arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release is sourced from an older master that was supplied by Universal Pictures. This master is mostly decent, but the film still has a dated appearance, so the larger your screen is, the easier it will be to see various limitations, including the surface age-related imperfections that keep popping up. Delineation and depth are mostly pleasing, but grain exposure isn't always convincing and as a result there are small areas that do not have particularly strong organic qualities. There are no serious issues with the grayscale, but a brand new and proper 2K/4K master will introduce some meaningful improvements, both during daylight and darker indoor and nighttime footage. Image stability is good, but there are some uneven transitions. All in all, this is a decent presentation, but the film can and should look better and healthier in high-definition. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Sleeping City Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The lossless track is problematic. Indeed, from start to finish the audio sounds extremely thin, very compressed and flat, creating the impression that it is being forced through a megaphone. It has a very annoying metalic quality that often makes it impossible to tell what is being said. So, either Universal's master is needs very serious restoration work or is defective, or there is some sort of an encoding error. I don't wish to speculate any further, but as it is the lossless track fails to do its job.

The Sleeping City Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Original Trailer - presented here is an original trailer for The Sleeping City. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

• Commentary - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critic Imogen Sara Smith.

The Sleeping City Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Sleeping City is a small film that works best as a time capsule. Richard Conte is predictably good in it, but it is impossible to argue that it is one of his better films. This recent release from Kino Lorber has a serious audio issue that I personally found very distracting. I don't know where it originated from, but it should have been addressed before the film was transferred on Blu-ray and included in Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema III.