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The Naked City poster

Movies that feel likeThe Naked City (1948)

After a former model is drowned in her bathtub, Detective James Halloran and Lieutenant Dan Muldoon attempt to piece together her murder.

If you loved The Naked City, the closest films we have are Stray Dog (1949), The Killers (1946) and The Lady from Shanghai (1947). All three share The Naked City's gritty and twisty feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Blast of Silence (1961).

🍅 85% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.5 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Jules Dassingrittytwistytenseatmospheric
4 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Criterion Channel · Darkroom

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If The Naked City hit the spot, these will too

Stray Dog poster
Stray Dog
1949 · dir. Akira Kurosawa
🍅 100%★ 7.8crime · drama · thriller

Both are built on the same subject: film noir

The difference: Leans harder into drama than The Naked City does

A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.

The Killers poster
The Killers
1946 · dir. Robert Siodmak
🍅 97%★ 7.7crime · mystery · thriller

The same preoccupation in both: murder

Two hit men walk into a diner asking for a man called "the Swede". When the killers find the Swede, he's expecting them and doesn't put up a fight. Since the Swede had a life insurance policy, an investigator, on a hunch, decides to look into the murder. As the Swede's past is laid bare, it comes to light that he was in love with a beautiful woman who may have lured him into pulling off a bank robbery overseen by another man.

The Lady from Shanghai poster
The Lady from Shanghai
1947 · dir. Orson Welles
🍅 86%★ 7.5mystery · crime · thriller

New York City shapes both of them

A romantic drifter gets caught between a corrupt tycoon and his voluptuous wife.

The Big Sleep poster
The Big Sleep
1946 · dir. Howard Hawks
🍅 96%★ 7.9mystery · crime · thriller

One thread runs through both: film noir

Private Investigator Philip Marlowe is hired by wealthy General Sternwood regarding a matter involving his youngest daughter Carmen. Before the complex case is over, Marlowe sees murder, blackmail, deception, and what might be love.

The Big Clock poster
The Big Clock
1948 · dir. John Farrow
🍅 100%★ 7.6crime · thriller

Both keep coming back to the same thing: murder

The difference: Takes it somewhere less twisty than The Naked City does

George Stroud, a crime magazine's crusading editor, has to postpone a vacation with his wife - again - when a glamorous blonde is murdered and he is assigned by his publishing boss to find the killer. As the investigation proceeds to its conclusion, Stroud must try to disrupt his ordinarily brilliant investigative team as they increasingly build evidence that he is the killer.

Shadow of a Doubt poster
Shadow of a Doubt
1943 · dir. Alfred Hitchcock
🍅 100%★ 7.8thriller · mystery · crime

Both land grit and twists at once

In sleepy Santa Rosa, restless young Charlie’s world brightens when her sophisticated Uncle Charlie arrives for a long visit. But as his behavior grows increasingly strange, she begins to suspect that her beloved uncle may be hiding a terrible secret—and that danger has quietly entered her home.

Dark Passage poster
Dark Passage
1947 · dir. Delmer Daves
🍅 90%★ 7.5thriller · mystery

Tense where it counts, atmospheric underneath

A man convicted of murdering his wife escapes from prison and works with a woman to try and prove his innocence.

Blast of Silence poster
Blast of Silence
1961 · dir. Allen Baron
🍅 83%★ 7.4crime · drama · thriller

Crime with a pulse of grit, in both cases

A hired killer from Cleveland has a job to do on a second-string mob boss in New York. But a special girl from his past and a fat gun dealer with pet rats get in his way.

Criss Cross poster
Criss Cross
1949 · dir. Robert Siodmak
🍅 86%★ 7.4crime · thriller

Tense thriller, and it commits to that

An armored-car guard must join a robbery after being caught with his ex-wife by her gangster husband.

The Narrow Margin poster
The Narrow Margin
1952 · dir. Richard Fleischer
🍅 100%★ 7.6thriller · crime

Both lean on atmosphere more than on mystery

A tough cop meets his match when he has to guard a gangster's widow on a train journey from Chicago to Los Angeles.

Odd Man Out poster
Odd Man Out
1947 · dir. Carol Reed
🍅 100%★ 7.6crime · drama · thrillerMax

Gritty crime in both cases

Belfast police conduct a door-to-door manhunt for an IRA gunman wounded in a daring robbery.

Key Largo poster
Key Largo
1948 · dir. John Huston
🍅 97%★ 7.7crime · thriller

Thriller built on tension, twice over

A hurricane swells outside, but it's nothing compared to the storm within the hotel at Key Largo. There, sadistic mobster Johnny Rocco holes up - and holds at gunpoint hotel owner James Temple, his widowed daughter-in-law Nora, and ex-GI Frank McCloud.

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The best-reviewed films that share The Naked City’s defining feeling.