Naked City meta

Here’s a nicely meta moment. Actress Libby Kingston (Nancy Malone) has been fitted for a costume, an “airline hostess” uniform. As she changes behind a curtain, her boyfriend, Detective Adam Flint (Paul Burke), tries on a hat and mugs like a screen hoodlum.

[From the Naked City episode “Bullets Cost Too Much,” January 4, 1961. Click for a larger view.]

There’s another meta moment in this episode, in Libby’s apartment. Libby is in costume for her role in a soap opera. Barbara Lord plays Dee Vale, a nurse who’s knocked at Libby’s door hoping to find Detective Flint. I like this exchange:

“What airline do you fly with, hmm?”

“Oh! The Eighth Avenue. Subway. On my way down to 66th Street, to a television studio. I’m an actress.”

An actor playing a cop playing a screen hoodlum, an actress playing a nurse, and an actress playing an actress playing a screen airline hostess.

[Barbara Lord and Nancy Malone. Click for a larger view.]

Why would Nurse Vale go to Libby’s apartment? There’s a Naked City trope: if Adam can’t be reached at his apartment, he must be at Libby’s place. Detective Arcaro told the nurse she could find Adam there.

Related reading
All OCA Naked City posts (Pinboard)
Elaine’s post about Naked City music