Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index

The City

The City is a 1939 short documentary film which attempts to contrast the evils of the industrialized city with the idyllic conditions one finds in small-town America. It was adapted by Lewis Mumford from the story by Pare Lorentz, and was directed by Ralph Steiner and Willard Van Dyke.

The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.


In British English, "The City" is a common name for the City of London or, more generally, as the collective noun for the financial entities based there.

The term is also used of San Francisco, California by residents of the San Francisco Bay Area, even those living in area cities that are now larger than San Francisco.