Dark City (1950 film)

Dark City is a 1950 film noir directed by William Dieterle, starring Charlton Heston in his screen debut, and produced by Hal B. Wallis. The film features Lizabeth Scott, Dean Jagger, Jack Webb and Harry Morgan. Webb and Morgan both went on to costar in the popular police drama television series Dragnet. Heston made his first professional bigscreen appearance in the movie, having starred in two amateur college films a decade before. In interviews much later, he would refer to Dark City as definitely not an A picture, but a pretty good B. Heston would also later refer to Orson Welles Touch of Evil, in which Heston starred, as not a great film...

The working title of this film was No Escape. The production dates were from Aprilto May 12, 1950. Additional scenes and retakes were from Mayto May 11, 1950. The production scenes were shot at the following Los Angeles locations Griffith Park Observatory, Union Station, North Hollywood, an amusement pier in Ocean Park, the Wilshire Plaza Hotel and the Valley Vista Motel on Ventura Blvd. in the San Fernando Valley, California. In addition, background shots were filmed in Las Vegas, Nevada and Chicago, Illinois.When the film was released, film critic for the New York Times, Bosley Crowther, applauded the work of newcomer Charlton Heston but panned the film, writing, A new star named Charlton Heston a tall, tweedy, roughhewn sort of chap who looks like a triplethreat halfback on a midwestern college football teamis given an unfortunate sendoff on the low and lurid level of crime in Hal Wallis thriller, Dark City, which came to the Paramount yesterday. Apparently Mr. Heston, who has worked for the stage and video, has something more than appearance to recommend him to dramatic roles. He has a quiet but assertive magnetism, a youthful dignity and a plainly potential sense of timing that is the good actors sine qua non. But in this clutching hand chiller, he is called upon to play nothing more complex or demanding than a crooked gambler marked for doom. ........

Source: Wikipedia