16mm Film 56 WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS - Fritz Lang Noir Start Price USD 399.99 Current Price USD 399.99 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Sunday, November 23, 2008 End Time Tuesday, December 23, 2008 Location North Andover, Massachusetts See more about '16mm Film 56 WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS - Fritz Lang Noir' Description '56 While the City Sleeps - D: Fritz Lang. Vincent Price, George Sanders, Dana Andrews, Ida Lupino, Rhonda Flemming.  This is a 16mm B&W/sound film print of the 1956 Fritz Lang Film-noir feature "While the City Sleeps" starring Vincent Price, George Sanders, Dana Andrews, Ida Lupino, Rhonda Flemming.  Here's a synopsis and review from AMG: " When media mogul Amos Kyne (Robert Warwick) dies, his business, which includes a major newspaper, a television station, and a wire news service, is turned over to his sole heir, his foppish, ne'er do well son (Vincent Price). The younger Kyne has no knowledge of how to run the company his father built, preferring to spend his time spending the money that it generates, and he decides to let the heads of the three divisions — newspaper editor John Day Griffith (Thomas Mitchell), wire service chief Mark Loving (George Sanders), and photo chief Harry Kritzer (James Craig) — fight it out among themselves, winner-take-all. Each one has a key alley: Griffith, in Edward Mobley (Dana Andrews), a top reporter who is lately appearing on television as well; Loving, in resourceful but sluttish columnist Mildred Donner (Ida Lupino), who has her own way of digging up secrets; and Kritzer, who doesn't think he needs to dig up secrets because he's sitting on the biggest one of all, his "friendship" with Kyne's ex-model wife, Dorothy (Rhonda Fleming). Mobley becomes a focal point because the story-of-the-moment concerns the "Lipstick Killer," a serial murderer, burglar, and sex fiend who has been terrorizing the city — break that case first and the job is won, and Mobley's specialty is crime reporting. The Lipstick Killer, a disturbed teenager named Robert Manners (John Drew Barrymore), continues to elude the police, and Loving's stumbling attempts to get information out first don't aid in the manhunt. Meanwhile, Mobley, using his own deductive powers and some basic psychology, manages to get under the killer's skin from afar on television and in print; however, unbeknownst to the reporter, the murderer is feeling more pressure to commit his crimes, and taking a very personal interest in targeting Mobley and his fiancée, Nancy Liggett (Sally Forrest). The two interwoven stories all get pulled together in a chase through the streets and into the city's subway tunnels, with Mobley, Nancy, Police Lieutenant Kaufman (Howard Duff), and the killer all crossing paths. While the City Sleeps (1954) was Fritz Lang's last fully successful film, one of a pair of movies that he made with independent producer Bert E. Friedlob (the other was Beyond a Reasonable Doubt). Additionally, it has proved to be one of his more enduring successes over the decades, due to the combination of its virtues as a thriller and also as a snapshot of American mores circa 1954. It may not be as respected as, say, M (1931) or Fury (1936), but it might be the Lang film that Americans of the baby-boom generation know best, through countless television showings in the 1960s and '70s, and like most for its sinister subtext. Strangely enough, While the City Sleeps was not a story that Lang that set out to tell -- producer Bert E. Friedlob rejected several of the director's proposed subjects and imposed the story on Lang, as he had already bought the rights to Charles Einstein's novel The Bloody Spur. That book was based on the criminal career of William Heirens, who had terrorized that city with a string of burglaries, sexual assaults, and murders during the mid-'40s. Heirens was identified as the "Lipstick Killer" when he left a message, scrawled in lipstick, at one of his crime scenes, asking the police to stop him. He was later caught, and he confessed and was given a life sentence (which he was still serving as of 2003). Lang jumped into this project with more enthusiasm than he had historically shown for subjects imposed from outside, primarily because he was familiar with the case and had followed it himself from newspaper articles in the mid-'40s. He made several important changes from the original story, shifting the setting from Chicago to a vaguely accurate (for the period) New York City, and moving it up to the early '50s, which allowed him to add elements of popular culture and cultural reality that were far more relevant to (and evocative of) 1954 than they would have been to 1946. The most notable of these were the intrusion of television into the news media, and the supposed corrupting influence of comic books on young readers, which is referred to as part of the killer's sickness. Lang also had fun with the casting, using actors with genuine talent and varying degrees of quirky flashiness into the leading roles; he was forced to tone down some of the more hardboiled sexuality in Einstein's book -- there were no musings by Dana Andrews' Ed Mobley about having sex with Ida Lupino's Mildred Donner here, but there was everything else but. Lang replaced the overt sexuality with a strangely neurotic coyness -- the script spends a lot of time dancing around sexuality, in connection with Ed Mobley and his fiancée (Sally Forrest), conniving Harrry Kritzer (James Craig) and Mrs. Kyne (Rhonda Fleming), and slutty Mildred Donner in connection with just about everyone. The picture moves a little slowly at times for some modern viewers, and may seem too conventional by modern standards, but it's a major Lang film just the same, winding its tensions and its just-short-of-bizarre neuroses agonizingly tight across 100 minutes of screen time, and telling some truths about that period in America in the process. In the latter connection, it's a fascinating popular culture document, bringing to the fore the various sexual hypocrisies of the '50s and some aspects of American business that were still being debated 50 years later -- While the City Sleeps was one of the earliest screenplays to hook its plot around the idea and setting of the modern media conglomerate. In the end, the Lipstick Killer is almost more a pawn (though hardly an "innocent" one) being manipulated in the larger game of corporate one-upmanship being played by the competing executives, whose near-total amorality has them treating his crimes as a commodity rather than an abomination. Thus, the movie has been given very much of a dual edge to cut with, a sinister crime thriller that is also a searing and engrossing social commentary, and nearly as vicious in that mode as Lang's earlier, ultra-cynical classic The Blue Gardenia. " Pictures are from the actual print:   Print Condition : Physical Condition:  Print has not been screened all the way through, but appears to be in excellent condition. Nice original. Vinegar Syndrome: No sign of vinegar . Condition ratings are generally subjective. Here are the ratings I use: · Near Mint -- This print looks like new. Virtually wear and splice free. · Excellent --- This print is excellent, may have a few minor splices, and some very minor surface wear, but nothing that detracts from presentation · Very Good -- This print is very nice - may have some ocassional splices, and some surface wear or an occasional line, but nothing too serious · Good – This print may have moderate surface wear, and some intermittent scratches or splices, but runs well with no problems. · Well Worn -- This print has moderate to heavy wear. ·  Splicy -- This print has more than it's fair share of splices ·  Needs Work -- This print has damage that prevents it from running smoothly and it needs repairs. Notes on Color: Color ratings are generally subjective. Here are the ratings I use: · IB Technicolor/Kodachrome – These are dye transfer processes that should never fade · Lowfade – this print is on a stock that will not fade for a long time · Excellent color – print that is not on a low fade stock but shows no signs of fading · Very Good color – print that has a slight shift, but retains most of its color. It may have a slight redish/pinkish/brownish cast to it, but has strong color. · Good Color – has a noticeable shift, but still maintains much of it’s color. Also knows as ‘Warm’ · Fair color – Has shifted substantially to Red/Pink but still has blues and greens in it. · Pink/Red – Print has turned mainly to pink or red, there may be some greens and blues left, but not much. Terms and Conditions: Payment: The winner of this auction agrees to make payment within 10 days of the end of the auction unless prior arrangements are made. Shipping: Shipping in the USA is via UPS  (Enter your zip code below for cost). I do not ship via USMail within the continental USA (But I will ship USMail to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands). International shipping is via Air Mail, mail. I can also ship via UPS express. For Canada, I can ship via USMail or via UPS Standard service. *** Note: Due to ebays new shipping policy, I need to use calculated shipping costs for feature films because of their heavy weight. Please note, that even if the shipping calculator says that shipping is higher than $15, I will NOT charge more than $15 to ship a feature film in the USA *** Non-US orders I will ship worldwide. The buyer agrees to make payment either by paypal only, and agrees to pay the appropriate shipping costs by air mail. Please contact me in advance if you wish to know what the shipping charge will be. Guarantee The film is guaranteed to be in the condition stated above or I will gladly refund your purchase price. There are no refunds on shipping charges, unless a condition should arise where I have made a gross error or omission in disclosing the condition of a film (in which case shipping costs both ways will be refunded, at my discretion). Please note: all requests for return must be made within 7 days of your receipt of the film – after that time, all sales become final. Returns will not be accepted for any other reason than errors on my part in the listing. Be sure to check my other auctions by clicking here. Good Luck! Powered by eBay Turbo ListerThe free listing tool. List your items fast and easy and manage your active items. Place a Bid!