Best 'on location' movies of the era

San Francisco in Vertigo, the city looked like a dreamscape.

For PARIS: "Orphee" (1949), "The 400 Blows" (1959), and Breathless (1960). For ROME: La Dolce Vita (1960), For LONDON: "Blow-Up" (1966), For VENICE: Summertime (1955) For RIO: "Black Orpheus" (1959-like Sweet Smell of Success, this also has great jazz score by revolutionary Bossa Nova Movement of time with Antonio Carlos Jobim score)...if you love the cool stylistic camera work of "The Sweet Smell of Success" also check out John Frankenheimer's, "Seconds" (1966) which showcases both late 50's/early 60's NYC burbs and LOS ANGELES/MALIBU BEACH in a tiny gem of a THRILLING and ultimately REWARDINGLY SMART FILM/like Sweet Smell of Success. Also check out all of Orson Welles stuff from the founding Citizen Kane and Magnificent Ambersons (early 1940's) to Lady From Shanghi (1948-Hall of Mirrors sequence is amazing) and Third Man (1949-which you mentioned), The Trial (1962-filmed in incredible black-and-white by Welles in an old abandoned Parisean railway station) and Otto Preminger's, "Anatomy of A Murder" (1959) with great jazz score by Duke Ellington. I completely agree with the previous poster to your reply that Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" is the best of SAN-FRANCISCO in that era. Those are the ones that immediately come to mind-in the same exciting kind of genre...Hope that helps!!!

PS---for smart film/jazzy score/beautiful cinematography/beatnik NYC/dealing w/very advanced themes for the time of this era see John Cassavettes, "Shadows" (1959)

For movies from that era where on-location filming of New York City figures prominently, Naked City is a must. It takes its title and gritty look from the famous, pioneering photographer-of-the-streets and the downtrodden, Weegee, who was the film's consultant. It's a landmark noir and one of the first films to be shot entirely on location. A great representation of the New York of the late forties.

Also notable is Young Man With a Horn, starring Kirk Douglas. Some great NYC location shots there, especially the long-demolished Third Avenue Elevated train.

Another is a B-movie starring Farley Granger (best known for Strangers on a Train) called Side Street. More great locations and Third Ave El shots. Unlike The Lost Weekend, which features a famous hungover excursion by Ray Milland along Third Avenue but also some obviously fake city sets, Side Street was actually filmed inside P.J. Clarke's (which served as the model for the bar in Wilder's film). Side Street turns up on Turner Classic Movies once or twice a year.

Much of Stanley Kubrick's Killer's Kiss was filmed inside the original Penn Station, before it was obliterated in the 1960s in what Daniel Patrick Moynihan called the greatest act of vandalism in U.S. history. I know of no other movie that shows more than a passing glimpse of the old Penn Station.

North by Northwest has some great, late fifties shots of midtown NY and the Plaza Hotel as well as Grand Central Station.

Of all of these, I would say that Naked City is the most notable as a film where the city itself is as much a character as the actors.

Jacques Demy's touching, underappreciated English-language film Model Shop (1969) incorporates a startlingly vivid portrayal of some of the less glamorous areas of Los Angeles, areas that most directors would never have thought to put onscreen, let alone film with such care and evident affection. You can almost smell and feel the air as the character George Matthews cruises around in his car and walks the city's lesser streets.

Wow! A lot of excellent suggestions. My favorite for on-location 1950s Midwest Americana is "Picnic" (1955). Reminds me of some of the color-saturated 8mm films my dad shot when I was a wee lad.

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Well it isn't noir and it isn't from the 50's, but I recently caught An Unmarried Woman on tv. The movie was filmed in New York City and it had plenty of great locations and street scenes from the 1970's, particularly of Grenwich Village.