Night and the City

For the remake, see Night and the City (1992 film).

"Night in the City" redirects here. For the Chinese film, see Night in the City (1933 film).

Night and the City
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jules Dassin
Produced by	Samuel G. Engel
Written by	Story: Gerald Kersh Screenplay: Jo Eisinger
Starring	Richard Widmark Gene Tierney Googie Withers Herbert Lom
Music by	Franz Waxman (United States) Benjamin Frankel (United Kingdom)
Cinematography	Max Greene
Editing by	Nick DeMaggio Sidney Stone
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	April 1950 (United Kingdom) June 9, 1950 (United States)
Running time	101 minutes (UK) 96 minutes (USA)
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Night and the City (1950) is a film noir based on the novel by Gerald Kersh, directed by Jules Dassin, and starring Richard Widmark and Gene Tierney. Shot on location in London, the plot evolves around an ambitious hustler whose plans keep going wrong.

The picture is considered a classic of the film noir genre. Director Dassin later confessed that he never read the novel the movie is based upon. In an interview appearing on The Criterion Collection DVD release, Dassin recalls that the casting of Tierney was in response to a request by Darryl 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 and featuring a completely different film score. Dassin has endorsed the American version as closer to his vision.

Plot

The story tells the story of Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark), a two-bit hustler who dreams of the good life provided by money. He's tried a lot of go-nowhere schemes but he has what he believes is a chance of a lifetime. He plans to take control of the professional wrestling game from promoter and underworld boss Kristo (Herbert Lom) by manipulating him through his father, the retired wrestling superstar Gregorius (Stanislaus Zbyszko).

Cast

• Richard Widmark as Harry Fabian
• Gene Tierney as Mary Bristol
• Googie Withers as Helen Nosseross
• Hugh Marlowe as Adam Dunne
• Francis L. Sullivan as Phil Nosseross, Silver Fox Club
• Herbert Lom as Kristo
• Stanislaus Zbyszko as Gregorius the Great
• Mike Mazurki as The Strangler
• Ada Reeve as Molly
• Charles Farrell as Mickey Beer
• Ken Richmond as Nikolas of Athens
• Edward Chapman as Hoskins
• Aubrey Dexter as Fergus Chilk
• Maureen Delaney as Annie O'Leary

Critical reaction

The film has been noted as groundbreaking in its lack of sympathetic characters, the deadly punishment of its protagonist (in the American version), and especially in its realistic portrayal of triumph by racketeers neither slowed nor at all worried by the machinations of law. Critics of the time did not react well; typical was Bosley Crowther's review in The New York Times, which read in part, "[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."^[1]

The film was first re-evaluated in the 1960s, as film noir became a celebrated genre, and it has continued to receive laudatory reviews to date. Writing for Slant 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."^[2]

In The Village Voice, film critic Michael Atkinson wrote, "...the movie's a moody piece of Wellesian chiaroscuro (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."^[3]In Street with No Name: A History of the Classic American Film Noir, critic Andrew Dickos acclaims it as one of the seminal noirs of the classical period. noting "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."

DVD release

The film was released on DVD on February 1, 2005 as part of the Criterion Collection.

Adaptations

Main article: Night and the City (1992 film)

The film was remade in 1992 under the same name, starring Robert DeNiro.

References

Notes

1. ^ Crowther, Bosley. The New York Times, film review, June 10, 1950. Last accessed: December 3, 2009
2. ^ Schager, Nick. Slant Magazine, DVD review of the film, February 16, 2005. Last accessed: December 3, 2009
3. ^ Atkinson, Michael. The Village Voice, film review, March 25, 2003. Last accessed: December 3, 2009

Bibliography

• Harry Tomicek: Der Wahnsinnsläufer. NIGHT AND THE CITY von Jules Dassin, Kamera: Max Greene (1950). In: Christian Cargnelli, Michael Omasta (eds.): Schatten. Exil. Europäische Emigranten im Film noir. PVS, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-901196-26-9

External links

• Night and the City at the Internet Movie Database
• Night and the City at AllRovi
• Night and the City at the TCM Movie Database
• Night and the City essay at the Criterion Collection by Paul Arthur
• Night and the City at Film Noir of the Week.
• Night and the City film clip at You Tube (the wrestling scene)