"That’s the way you run a case lad, step by step"

Struggling with new software at work meant I wore a seemingly permanent scowl beginning about 2 p.m. today.
I am smiling now, though, because I just enjoyed a 60-year-old JULES DASSIN-directed masterpiece on DVD.
In "THE NAKED CITY," Det. Lt. Dan Muldoon (Barry Fitzgerald) and Det. Jimmy Halloran (Dan Taylor) are NEW YORK CITY homicide detectives working the case of a murdered model.
Dassin takes this rather routine story and focuses on the feet pounding the pavements, the crossing off lists of possible evidence and the chasing of false leads that punctuate actual police cases, making this film a touchstone for police procedural films for the decades that followed.
Modern police drama would not exist without this film.
"No, the picnic is over, you've told your last lie," Muldoon tells "person of interest" Frank Niles (Howard Duff) during an interrogation. "You're knee deep in stolen jewelry. You're involved the the Dexter Murder. You've been trying to obstruct justice all along the line. Now you're gonna tell me what I want to know or so help me if it's the last thing I do in this department, I'll get you twenty years. Now that's the truth Sonny Boy, and you know I'm not bluffing. Who's Henderson? Who's Henderson?"
"The Naked City" is also a wonderful snapshot of New York life, circa 1948, including sweaty subway rides, rope-skipping kids and immigrant factory workers.
I am going to watch "The Naked City" again, before it is due back at the library. Then, I might check it out again.
It's that good.