A mostly uninteresting urban gangster semi-noir, Cry of the City is in part a more serious reworking of Manhattan Melodrama (cop and criminal both from the same neighbourhood). Richard Conte's performance is actually rather good, if you can ignore the fact that his character changes motivations ever two minutes. Debra Paget (later of The Ten Commandments and a couple of Corman/Poe pictures) as the impossibly innocent girlfriend is attractive and credible, but woefully underused. In fact, all of the supporting characters are rather interesting, and could have used more of the focus. Victor Mature is rather good too, but whatever interesting story may have been is undermined by silly plotting (all that stuff with the diamonds) and formula.
Review of Cry of the City
