Wednesday, October 11
TCM Spotlight: Architecture in the Movies

The Urban Landscape

8:00 PM The Naked City ('48)
10:00 PM The Clock ('45)
11:45 PM Skyscraper Souls ('32)
1:30 AM 42nd Street ('33)
3:15 AM Weekend at the Waldorf ('45)

“There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.”
—Closing line for the film The Naked City (Universal, 1948)

With its soaring skyscrapers, sophisticated penthouses and cab-clogged streets, Manhattan is the cinema’s most recognizable movie set. New York City is the real star of The Naked City (8:00 PM), a film noir that focuses on the investigation of an attractive young model. Shot entirely on location in gritty black and white, the film portrays the Big Apple’s darker side. In contrast, The Clock (10:00 PM) offers a romantic view of Manhattan, as star-crossed lovers (Robert Walker and Judy Garland) meet and marry in a whirlwind 48-hour adventure. Set during World War II, the city’s landmarks were shot on a Hollywood backlot at MGM. The iconic landscape of tall buildings becomes the plot device for Skyscraper Souls (11:45 PM); this soap-opera-in-the-sky chronicles the lives of both the ambitious and lowly workers of a 100-story office building. For glamour-starved audiences of the Depression, Busby Berkeley served up a recipe of dance numbers, romance and drama against a Broadway backdrop in the groundbreaking backstage musical 42nd Street (1:30 AM). Where the “underworld can meet the elite,” familiar skyscrapers make an appearance in the film’s finale. The opulent interiors of the landmark Waldorf-Astoria hotel are the escapist setting for the tongue-in-cheek paean to Grand Hotel in Weekend at the Waldorf (3:15 AM).