Cry of the City

Cry of the City, directed by Robert Siodmak, is a film noir starring Victor Mature and Richard Conte as two childhood friends from the same Italian American immigrant neighborhood who end up on opposite sides of the law, one a police detective, the other a criminal. Mature and Conte's roles were originally reversed; Mature requested the swap because he did not want to play another criminal so soon after his previous film, Kiss of Death. The film's title was changed from The Law and Martin Rome to Cry of the City after a real lawyer named Morton E. Rome objected to seeing his own surname on posters and threatened legal action. The film is also known for its use of Alfred Newman's Street Scene theme, which over time became something of an unofficial musical signature of the film noir genre. Who it's for: anyone curious about a classic film noir, renamed under threat of a lawsuit, about two childhood friends from the same neighborhood who end up on opposite sides of the law. Who it's not for: those wanting a film actually shot on the real streets of New York, since most of its urban scenes were in fact built on a Los Angeles soundstage.