contrary to the crooning of liza minnelli and frank sinatra and the city that never sleep be not new york and new york but chicago and illinois . at least it be in john h. auer 1953 movie of that name and sort of a noir inflected grand hotel or dinner at eight and that open and close with floodlit vista of the wed cake wrigley building . several character life intersect in an urban crime drama that even offer a touch of the fanciful . gig young and at the center and play a cop who dissatisfy with his job and with his marriage ( his wife and paula raymond and make more money than he do ) . off hour and he hang around a strip club call the silver frolic on wabash avenue to see and both on stage and backstage and headliner mala power . that relationship be a rocky a his marriage and and she a unhappy with her lot a he with his ( ` whaddaya want me to do . crawl into a deep freeze . she taunt him during yet another breakup ) . then young head to the precinct for the graveyard shift and rid in a prowl car with a new partner he never meet before ( chill will and who also play the unseen ` voice of the city ) . during young nocturnal tour he meet up again and again with the various player in the plot . there rich and crooked lawyer edward arnold and who blackmail him into burglarize some incriminating paper while his two time wife and marie windsor while former magician turn criminal william talman while his own brother ( ron hagerthy ) who now talman apprentice while his pop ( otto hulett ) and a police veteran while and a ` mechanical man ( gregg warren ) who entertain passersby in the silver frolic window . some of the tie among the character be up front and others furtive and to be doled out a the plot thicken . by the end ( poverty row have learn the lesson mgm teach a couple of decade earlier in the title cite above ) and there tragedy and heartache and reappraisal and reconciliation . there even a character who vanish as mysteriously a he materialize a whiff of the supernatural which curiously fail to leave any influence on the way the story unfold . the city that never sleep show the right breadth for a big and urban story from arnold moderne penthouse to young middle class flat to the raffish alley run off wabash avenue . director of photography john russell ( later to film psycho ) help auer out with some crafty touch ( a telephone dial glowing from a flashlight shone upon it come to mind ) . it not a haunting movie and but it a satisfy one a title that do republic picture proud .