While the city sleeps

The editorship of a major city newspaper comes to rest upon the search for a psychopathic murderer (the “lipstick killer”). Although widely dismissed or neglected by critics, this is a film which Lang regarded as equal to his classic ‘M’. Thematically it bears comparison in the implication that socially acceptable levels of society are little different from the noir underworld. The murderer is more sympathetic than the newspaper people. There are also explicit parallels between the murderer and the ‘hero’ played by Dana Andrews, who at one stage uses his girlfriend as ‘bait’ for the killer. Stylistically this is Lang at his most lucidly refined. Cast includes Dana Andrews, George Sanders, Rhonda Fleming, George Sanders, Vincent Price and Ida Lupino. Based on the novel “The Bloody Spur” by Charles Einstein.