The films is a newspaper drama, written by Casey Robinson and was based on The Bloody Spur by Charles Einstein. The novel depicts the story of the Lipstick Killer.
Film critic Bosley Crowther who liked the film, especially the acting, wrote: "Since it is full of sound and fury, murder, sacred and profane love and a fair quota of intramural intrigue, a viewer is left wondering if the tycoons of the giant Kyne publishing combine ever bother to cover such mundane stories as the weather. But while this journalistic jamboree is more flamboyant than probable, a tight and sophisticated script by Casey Robinson and a clutch of professional performances make While the City Sleeps a diverting and workmanlike fiction."
Time Out film reviews wrote of the film, "Lang makes inspired use of glass-walled offices, where all is seen and nothing revealed, and traces explicit parallels between Andrews and the murderer. Lang's most underrated movie.
Cast:
- Dana Andrews: Edward Mobley
- Rhonda Fleming: Dorothy Kyne
- George Sanders: Mark Loving
- Howard Duff: Lt. Burt Kaufman
- Thomas Mitchell: Jon Day Griffith
- Vincent Price: Walter Kyne
- Sally Forrest: Nancy Liggett
- John Drew Barrymore: Robert Manners (Lipstick Killer)
- James Craig: "Honest" Harry Kritzer
- Ida Lupino: Mildred Donner
- Robert Warwick: Amos Kyne
- Mae Marsh: Mrs. Manners
- Ralph Peters: Gerald Meade
- Sandy White: Judith Felton
- Larry J. Blake: Police Desk Sergeant
