| Night and the City | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Jules Dassin |
| Written by |
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| Screenplay by | Jo Eisinger |
| Based on | Night and the City byGerald Kersh |
| Produced by | Samuel G. Engel |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Max Greene |
| Edited by |
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| Music by | Franz Waxman (Benjamin Frankel in the British version) |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
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Running time | 96 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Night and the City is a 1950 Britishfilm noir directed byJules Dassin and starringRichard Widmark,Gene Tierney andGoogie Withers.[1] It is based on thenovel of the same name byGerald Kersh. Shot on location inLondon and atShepperton Studios, the plot revolves around an ambitioushustler who meets continual failures.
Dassin later confessed that he had never read the novel upon which the film is based. In an interview appearing onThe Criterion Collection DVD release, Dassin recalls that the casting of Tierney was in response to a request byDarryl Zanuck, who was concerned that personal problems had rendered the actress "suicidal" and hoped that work would improve her state of mind. The film's British version was five minutes longer, with a more upbeat ending[clarification needed] and featuring a completely different film score. Dassin endorsed the American version as closer to his vision.[2]
The film contains a very tough and prolonged fight scene betweenStanislaus Zbyszko, a celebrated professional wrestler in real life, andMike Mazurki, who before becoming an actor was himself a professional wrestler.
Harry Fabian is an ambitious American tout andcon man on the make in London. He maintains a fractured relationship with the honest Mary Bristol, and with nightclub owner and businessman Phil Nosseross, and with Nosseross's scheming wife, Helen.
While attempting a con at awrestling match, Fabian witnesses Gregorius, a veteran Greek wrestler, arguing with his son Kristo, who has organised the fight, and who effectively controls all wrestling in London. After denouncing Kristo's event as tasteless exhibitionism that shames the sport'sGraeco-Roman traditions, Gregorius leaves with Nikolas, a fellow wrestler.
Fabian catches up with the two and befriends them, thinking that he could host wrestling in London without interference from Kristo if he could persuade Kristo's father to support the enterprise.
Fabian approaches Nosseross and Helen with his proposal, then asks for an investment. Nosseross is incredulous, but at his wife's instigation he offers to provide half of the required £400 if Fabian can match it. Desperate, Fabian asks for money from Figler, a panhandler and unofficial head of an informal society of beggars, Googin, a forger, and Anna, a Thameside smuggler, but none will help him.
Fabian is eventually approached by Helen Nosseross, who offers the £200 in exchange for getting a licence to continue running her own nightclub, having obtained the money by selling an expensive fur coat her husband recently bought for her. Fabian agrees but tricks her by having Googin forge the licence.
Meanwhile, Nosseross is visited by associates of Kristo, who warn him to keep Fabian away from London's wrestling scene. Already suspecting his wife of duplicity, Nosseross neglects to warn Fabian, who proceeds to open his own gym with Gregorius and Nikolas as the stars and Nosseross as hissilent partner.
A furious Kristo visits the gym and discovers that his father is supporting Fabian's endeavour. Meeting with Nosseross, the two plot to kill Fabian but realise that they can only do so if Gregorius leaves Fabian. Nosseross meets with Fabian and withdraws his backing, suggesting that Fabian gets Nikolas and The Strangler, a showy wrestler favoured by Kristo, into the ring together to keep the business going, knowing that Gregorius would never allow it.
Fabian convinces The Strangler's manager, Mickey Beer, to support the fight and taunts The Strangler into confronting Gregorius and Nikolas. Gregorius agrees to the fight, convinced by Fabian that it will prove that his traditional style of wrestling is superior. Beer asks Fabian for £200 to cover his fee, so Fabian asks Nosseross for the money. Instead, Nosseross calls Kristo, informing him that The Strangler is in Fabian's gym.
Betrayed, Fabian steals the money from Mary Bristol and returns to the gym. However, The Strangler goads Gregorius into a prolonged and brutal fight, during which Nikolas's wrist is broken.
Gregorius eventually defeats The Strangler in the ring as Kristo arrives but dies minutes later in his son's arms from exhaustion. Seeing that both his business and protection are lost, Fabian flees.
In revenge for his father's death, Kristo puts a £1,000 bounty on Fabian's head, sending word to all of London's underworld. Fabian is hunted through the night by Kristo's men. Figler attempts to trap Fabian for the reward but he gets away.
Meanwhile, convinced that her licence is authentic, Helen Nosseross leaves her husband, only to discover that the document is a worthless forgery. She returns to Nosseross in desperation, only to discover that he has killed himself because she left him.
Fabian eventually finds shelter at Anna'sscow on the Thames, but he is tracked down by Kristo. Mary arrives, and Fabian attempts to redeem himself by shouting to Kristo that Mary has betrayed him so that she will get the reward to cover the money he stole from her. As he runs towards where Kristo is standing onHammersmith Bridge, he is caught and killed by The Strangler, who throws his body into the river. The Strangler is arrested moments later and Kristo walks away from the scene. Mary is comforted by her neighbour and close friend, Adam Dunne, who has feelings for her.
The film has been described as innovative in its lack of sympathetic characters, the deadly punishment of its protagonist (in the American version), and especially its realistic portrayal of triumph byracketeers who are neither slowed nor at all worried by the machinations of law.[citation needed] Critics of the time did not react well; typical wereBosley Crowther's comments inThe New York Times:
[Dassin's] evident talent has been spent upon a pointless, trashy yarn, and the best that he has accomplished is a turgid pictorial grotesque...he tried to bluff it with a very poor script—and failed...[the screenplay] is without any real dramatic virtue, reason or valid story-line...little more than a melange of maggoty episodes having to do with the devious endeavors of a cheap London night-club tout to corner the wrestling racket—an ambition in which he fails. And there is only one character in it for whom a decent, respectable person can give a hoot.[5]
The film was first re-evaluated in the 1960s, asfilm noir became a more esteemed genre, and it has continued to receive laudatory reviews since then[citation needed]. Writing forSlant Magazine, Nick Schager said,
Jules Dassin's 1950 masterpiece was his first movie after being exiled from America for alleged communist politics, and the unpleasant ordeal seems to have infused his work with a newfound resentment and pessimism, as the film—about foolhardy scam-artist Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark) and his ill-advised attempts to become a big shot—brims with anger, anxiousness, and a shocking dose of unadulterated hatred.[6]
InThe Village Voice, film criticMichael Atkinson wrote, "... the movie's a moody piece ofWellesianchiaroscuro (shot by Max Greene, né Mutz Greenbaum) and an occasionally discomfiting underworld plunge, particularly when the mob-controlled wrestling milieu explodes into a kidney-punching donnybrook."[7]
InStreet with No Name: A History of the Classic American Film Noir, film critic Andrew Dickos acclaims it as one of the seminal noirs of the classical period, writing: "in a perfect fusion of mood and character, Dassin created a work of emotional power and existential drama that stands as a paradigm of noir pathos and despair."
TheAcademy Film Archive preservedNight and the City in 2004.[8]
The British Lion Film Production Disc collection at theBritish Library includes music from the film soundtrack ofNight and the City, upon whichAdelaide Hall is featured.[9]
Night and the City was released in the United Kingdom in April 1950.[10]
The film was released as aRegion 1DVD in February 2005 as part ofThe Criterion Collection and in Region 2 by theBFI in October 2007. Both discs contained the U.S. version only. Criterion issued the film onBlu-ray as a two-disc edition containing both the U.S. and U.K. versions in August 2015. In September 2015, the BFI also released the film on Blu-ray, again containing both versions.
Night and the City, a 1992 film starring Robert De Niro, was based on the film.
