You learn a lot about a noir character by their coffee: sugar? cream? more whiskey than caffeine?
I’m cataloging every noir scene where coffee plays a role — rote and ritual, soul-dark or cream and sugar, served from dingy diners to shiny penthouses.
Generally my threshold for ‘coffee scene’ is higher than diner mug cameos, a quick glimpse of a stovetop brewer, or china cups in establishing shots
but these matter greatly to The Naked City for four reasons:
the film is famous for being shot on location, incorporating the citizens and ‘flavor’ of the space
The Naked City aims at ‘the platonic ideal’ of everything it depicts — beverages surely included
the film’s attention to details such as suit materials tells me that the choice of coffee, backgrounded though it may be, is intentional
even background items can make a Statement
And so! Coffee in The Naked City’s streets and sheets.
Coffee on the Streets
As idealistic young detective in training Jimmy Halloran (Don Taylor) pounds the pavement, he buys beverages including cold root beer and hot coffee to soften up various businessmen (always men), shopgirls (always women), wrestlers, goons, and shopkeepers he questions.
Coffee in the Sheets
Is that potentially a teapot instead of coffee carafe hiding behind the wing of Muldoon’s chair? I contend it’s coffee until proven otherwise!
This is not a man who knows how to relax, or who would look at chamomile anything but askance.
This static shot is designed to depict Muldoon in a highly specific way: it’s the only time we see him with his feet up relaxing; he’s dressed in exaggerated difference to his daily garb; yet despite it being late at night, he’s reading the paper and drinking coffee.
In other words, even when at rest, he’s never not keeping sharp.