How sad is this?

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

The acting in this movie is really good.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

"Anything you can tell me?" "Sure...he's dead"There is so much to like about this film that it makes me wonder how "The Sleeping City" isn't more famous. It's simply one of the best film noir pictures of the era...and that's saying a lot because I love noir and have seen many, many of these pictures.The film begins with a vicious scene, as a young hospital intern is shot in the face at point blank range. The cops, however, have no leads and the killing seems senseless...perhaps the work of a psycho. With no other real options, the boss decides to call in three special agents. These men will obtain jobs at the hospital and see if there is anything that would lead them to understand why the man was murdered...as well as who did it.The main undercover agent is Fred (Richard Conte). Because of his own background in medicine, he'll pose as one of the interns. It's a tough job, as he'll be around patients and it's pretty hard to fake it indefinitely! He's told to rely on his nurses, as they'll help him figure out what to do. And, if he has a case that's over his head, he'll just have to break cover and get a real doctor to help. However, when another intern soon ends up dead it sure looks as if some conspiracy is going on...but the viewer sure is surprised how deep this all goes and what it's all really about...and it sure isn't random!There is so much going for the film and most of it has to do with realism. Apart from Richard Conte, most of the rest of the folks in the film don't look like actors and the cops especially seem like real cops. Additionally, Conte was no pretty boy and was excellent in the film...tough but no smart-alleck or unrealistic guy! But what also really helps is the story itself...it's hard to predict, very intelligently written and amazingly good. See this film...you won't regret it and it doesn't insult the intelligence of the viewer.

***SPOILERS*** Shocking film noir that takes places in one of the country's largest hospital Bellvue, called City Hospital in the movie, involving a combination bookie loan shark and drug trafficking operation under the very noses of the hospital staff running it.It's when Bellvue Hospital intern Dr. Foster, Hurbert O'Neil,is found shot to death outside after taking a smoke break that the NYPD gets involved in finding what was the reason behind Dr.Foster's murder. Foster had been acting very strange before he was blown away and one of the things that the NYPD is very interested in is what his relations with head trauma nurse Ann Sebastin, Coleen Gray, was. It was minutes before he was popped that a very troubled Dr.Foster was trying to get in touch with Nurse Sebastin as if his life depended on it!Getting undercover cop Fred Rowen, Richard Conte, into the hospital as a new intern from far off L.A he's given the name and medical background of a Dr. Fred Glibert with only his boss Insp. Gordon,John Alexander, knowing his true identity. Bunking with fellow intern Dr. Steve Anderson, Alex Nicol, Rowan notices that he's very troubled in what he's involved in which has nothing to do with medicine. Dr. Anderson is in hock playing the horses with hospital elevator operation "Doc" Ware, Richard Tober, who's always giving him sure bets that don't come in!Rowan tying to get his bunkmate Steve Anderson to quite betting with "Doc" and stick to his work at the hospital as well as pay more attention to his fiancée Kathy Hall, Peggy Dow, has just the opposite effect in him going from bad to worse. Anderson finally ends up killing himself by jumping into the East River when the pressures of being an intern who makes $50.00 a month with debts, in playing the horses, just about breaking him became too much for Anderson to handle!***SPOILERS*** Realizing that "Doc" is somehow involved in both Foster and Anderson's deaths Rowen himself starts to make book with him and ends up over his head in owing "Doc" money that he can't come up with! It's then that the cagey "Doc" plays his trump card giving Rowen the only way out he can find: Write out prescriptions for the white stuff, narcotics, that Doc and his contact in the hospital can sell on the street for as much as 100 times it's value! Rowen now has to make the pinch on the drug dealing "Doc" Ware before he gets wise to him before he himself ends up where both Foster and Anderson did! It the Bellvue Hospital morgue! But before that Rowen's got to find out who "Doc's" contact in the hospital is before he could do it to make it stick. Which can very well jeopardize not only the undercover NYPD drug operation but the person trying to crack it Det.Fred Rowen himself!Amazing performance by actor Richard Tober as the creepy manipulating hyena like "Doc" Ware. Even though he was in less then ten films, with the most notable being the taxi driver in the movie "Kiss of Death", in is more then 40 year acting and writing career Ware's performance in the movie "The Sleeping City" should have easily won him an Academy Award in the best supporting acting category.

A detective (Richard Conte) goes undercover, posing as an intern at New York's Bellevue Hospital, in order to solve the murder of another intern. What he discovers is a rather sophisticated operation of gambling and drug dealing. Desperate interns, a seductive and crooked ward nurse played by Colleen Grey, and a rather demented hospital maintenance man (Pops) played by Richard Tabor, together call into question the very integrity of the famous hospital. Conte works his way through to solve the murder and to learn the circumstances around it in some unusual film noir settings amidst darkened hospital wards and empty hallways.

I saw this movie once, many years ago, in NYC. It was filmed on location at Bellevue Hospital, eighty blocks south from where I did my residency training in medicine (50's-60's.) The medical attire, locations, and medical palaver are certainly dated, but that was the way it was ... many years ago. The movie's characters (Conte et al.) were grand; an atherosclerotic, aging, Bellevue Hospital was really like that, the state-of-the-art treatments, the accomodations for patients were all shockingly interesting. In this sense, it is living history of a past medical era.The Noir is also so nicely done: hospital corridors, primitive art deco elevators, and night shots of Gotham streets. (All these retro-images are based on a film once seen by me forty years ago!)If film renovators/DVD entreprenuers were to read this clip, I would recommend they consider this movie as one that many forgotten Noirs that need to be resurrected. It would be a cryptogenic discovery. Conte was a great actor, and he has a loyal following. (This movie was in his early career, and he plays a good guy!) He would be lauded later for his Godfather roles.)