Page 1 of 1

Smudger reviews Tommy Gunn's "City that Never Sleep"

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 12:49 pm
by smudger
When you see the name Tommy Gunn on the credits, you can be sure of one thing: the product is going to be way classier than your average snuff clip. Working in collaboration with producers like Bluestone, and in this case Hank Samuels, his speciality is nostalgia; recreating an old black and white film noir, retaining the style and the atmosphere, but with 21st century explicitness and effects which were forbidden to the original.

I haven’t actually seen the original version of The City That Never Sleeps, so I don’t know how closely, if at all, it follows the storyline. This one is simple enough; a crooked lawyer discovers that his criminal ventures are about to be discovered, and decides to eliminate all the potential witnesses. He starts with his partner in crime, who obliges us by dying very quickly- we aren’t really interested in him, are we? Next is the partner’s wife, (Olivia Glass) whose pleadings fall on deaf ears, as he sadistically shoots her, one slug at a time, savouring the reaction to each before firing the next one; well, that lets us do the same, doesn’t it?

Then it’s drag her into the bathroom, where her clothing is opened up so he (and we!) can gloat over the wounds...

He then summons his bitchy girlfriend, Lydia (Ryanne Rhodes) who arrives and removes her coat to reveal a classy dress of the old style, with very clearly nothing on underneath it... (no cheap white T-shirts in Tommy Gunn movies, no sirree!)

She is dispatched with the same deliberate, obvious pleasure, before being dragged to join Olivia in the bathroom, and have her own wounds revealed.

Then come the “extras”: a scene where Medical Examiner Hank surveys the beautiful nude corpses in the morgue; plus the death scenes in black and white for the purists, then even a couple of out-takes to prove the girls aren’t really dead. Also slo-mo replays! Very complete!

Smudger’s conclusion? For any shooting fan, this is a real Rolls Royce of a movie. The effects are good and believable, the reactions and acting of the victims is excellent, and the make-up effects of the wounds on the body are as good as it gets. Photography is clear and pin-sharp, playing full screen without fuzziness. The general effect of the noir is engendered by the classy period dresses and hairstyles, so I found myself ignoring the touchtone phone and the photocopier! Plus, and this is very important for many of us, the guy’s an excellent shot and gets both the girls with a bulls-eye in the boob!

So, if you’ve taken the trouble to read this, it must mean you haven’t got it- so put that right as soon as possible by visiting Ruemorgue.

Re: Smudger reviews Tommy Gunn's "City that Never Sleep"

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 1:29 pm
by tommygun
Smudge..., thinking about that long thread on the DS board makes me appreciate the time you take with a review like this... Yes, there is quite a bit more money and time involved in these pieces, and hopefully, there are a lot of people like you who really appreciate the time and effort that goes into these pieces.

Re: Smudger reviews Tommy Gunn's "City that Never Sleep"

Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 7:20 pm
by G-Man
Hi TG,
Can you tell us the details of the death scene(s) in the actual movie
"City that Never Sleeps" 1953.
Thanks G :mrgreen:

Re: Smudger reviews Tommy Gunn's "City that Never Sleep"

Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 10:00 am
by tommygun
Sure. It was one of Marie Windsor's better deaths. She's in a fur coat in an alley when her lover (who killed her husband) catches up with her. Shoots her through the coat (GREAT grimace), and then Marie stumbles slowly into the street and collapses. Later a couple of cops find her body. The movie is pretty generally available. This scene (the only woman's death) is very near the end.