Night and the City (1950) Reviews

• Widmark Tops Out

  bkoganbing2005-02-20

  My favorite Richard Widmark performance on the screen and probably his best work is Night and the City. This was director Jules Dassin's last film before settling in Europe in the wake of the blacklist and it has a first rate cast tuned to a fine pitch, like an orchestra without a bad note in it. Harry Fabian is this smalltime American hustler/conman who's settled in London and always working that middle ground netherworld between the law and outright gangsterism. He really isn't a very likable man and the trick is to keep the audience care what's happening to him. This is the test of a great actor and Widmark is fully up to the challenge. Fabian while working one of his cons overhears a piece of information about the father/son relationship between champion Graeco-Roman wrestler Gregorius the Great and gangster/promoter Cristo who is the London version of Vince McMahon. He cons Gregorius into thinking he wants to promote old style wrestling like Gregorius used to do. That con game sets in motion the events of the film that ultimately end in tragedy. The cast is uniformly fine, but one performance really stands out, that of Stanislaus Zbyzsko as Gregorius. He was a real professional wrestling champion back in the day when it was real. Zbyzsko invests so much of his own life and reality as Gregorius that he's really something special. His scenes with Herbert Lom as his son are so good they go far beyond the plane of mere acting. It's some of the best work Lom has ever done as well. How there weren't a few Oscar nominations from this is a mystery for me. For those who like film noir, this should be required viewing. Especially for you Richard Widmark fans.

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• Always Loser

  claudio_carvalho2007-12-31

  In London, the swindler Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark) is an ambitious loser, frequently taking money from his girlfriend Mary Bristol (Gene Tierney). When he meets the famous Greco-Roman wrestler Gregorius the Great (Stanislaus Zbyszko) in the arena of his son and the wrestling lord Kristo (Herbert Lorn), he plans a scheme to become successful. He cheats Greorious, promising clean combats in his own arena, and the old man accepts the partnership. However, without money to promote the fight, he invites his boss and owner of a nightclub Phil Nosseross (Francis L. Sullivan) to be his partner, but is betrayed and his business fails ending in a tragedy. "Night and the City" is a great film-noir, with many twists and another excellent performance of Richard Widmark. The story shows the underworld of London, with low-lives, hustlers, beggars, gamblers and other amoral characters through a magnificent black and white cinematography. The direction of Jules Dassin is sharp and the screenplay perfectly develops the characters and the story in an excellent pace. The Brazilian distributor Oregon Filmes / Fox has one of the best collections of movies labeled "Tesouros da Sétima Arte" ("Treasures of the Seventh Art"). Unfortunately, most of their DVDs shamefully have problems while playing the film, maybe because of the lack of quality of the laboratory they use. My vote is nine. Title (Brazil): "Sombras do Mal" ("Shadows of Evil") Note: On 10 October 2016, I saw this film again.

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• like a rat in a trap of his own creation

  alicepaul2004-02-25

  Every where Richard Widmark's loser character Harry Fabian turns in this film he finds golden opportunities smothered in bad timing. Widmark utilizes a variation of that smarmy, snickering sinister giggle-chuckle that was memorialized in Kiss of Death.It serves the actor well in this film in its toned-down form but offers up a sort of pathetic body language for Fabian, the character. It may be that this American ex-patriot character is just way out of his depth. His hucksterism is not much appreciated by many of his acquaintances in this seedy London underworld. If Harry Fabian would simply accept that he is destined to be a 3rd rate shill and stooge,he might have fund some small pleasures. However, his mind is a shade too quick and his ambition too pumped. He's a user with not a shread of remorse about stepping on others, ripping them off, keeping one tiny step ahead of exposure. This is a superb film, squalid and sinister in its portrayal of greed, corruption and betrayal.

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• Sublime film noir,sublime Widmark!

  dbdumonteil2002-11-05

  SPOILERS How sublime!This is without a doubt,Jules Dassin's towering achievement.Had he only made this work,his name would deserve to be remembered forever. Richard Widmark will leave you on the edge of your seat!How can an actor be so good?Just compare him to Today's stars.Widmark's performance is one of these you never forget.A washout trying to make it big in the London underworld,he's some kind of mythomaniac,sometimes verging on madness,with an almost Shakespearian grandeur.His fate seems sealed when the story begins.We do know he won't work it out.A nightmarish bunch surrounds him and are like spiders watching a fly:the obese Francis L. Sullivan,a grotesque and fatty caricature who hates Widmark because his wife (Withers) has a crush on Widmark and provides him with funds;this two-bit femme fatale,who thinks she can escape her wealthy fatso.the two wrestlers ,fighting on the ring like animals ;there's nothing human in this fighting :you've never seen a thing like that. Almost every sequence should be studied in detail but I will only mention three of them: -After a bestial -an euphemism-fight,the old wrestler asks his son to close the window because he's cold,so cold..But the window is closed and the son only pretends to obey.He dies in his arms. -Widmark's final run is the most beautiful ever filmed.Close shots ,apocalyptic landscapes,impressive framings.It's the whole underworld against a single man,who cannot rely on anyone.Widmark's despair,hope against hope ,his final fit of anger when he wants his girlfriend to get the reward,are among the best fil m noir scenes. -When Googie returns home and finds her hubby dead ,she thinks she 's free at last.But the horrible shrew is here ,like a spider on her web,she's the sole legatee,and now she's got the prodigal woman under her thumb. There's another world ,but we are only allowed to catch transient glimpses of it.People complain about Gene Tierney's rather small part on the site.She does not enter the underworld,the subcity,she stays away from it.She's Widmark's last chance,but as the movie begins,it's already too late.Only at the end ,Tierney tries to walk across the mirror,only to discover it's a blind alley.Her character is not romantic enough,all she dreamed about was a cosy life in a sweet cottage in the heart of the country.She falls in her neighbor's arms-a neighbor who's got a money-box in the shape of a bank!- After such a peak ,the only way for Jules Dassin was down.And alas that was what happened:"du rififi chez les hommes" has still got a good reputation.The Melina Mercouri era brought at best entertaining works (celui qui doit mourir;Topkapi) at best,dumb and vulgar comedies (la loi;never on Sunday)at worst."Dream of passion" his last one,was pretentious to a fault :trying to link Greek mythology (Medea)with the story of a woman who killed his children.He had not realized that "night and the city" with his monsters and his lonesome hero,whose fate is sealed was already a Greek tragedy ,and so much so much more.

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• Odd Man Out

  harry-762003-12-08

  The rise and fall of small-time hustler Harry Fabain is chronicled in this noir thriller by Director Jules Dassin. This was Dassin's American swansong, completed just before being named by fellow director Ed Dmytryk before HUAK as a "communist," thus ending Dassin's American career. He brought to "Night and the City" all the technique he acquired over years of quality movie making. Although born in Connecticut and raised and trained in the US, Dassin's work always had the look and feel of his European counterpart, Carol Reed. The script here is a decent one with surprise turns, avoiding predictability. Franz Waxman's high pitched score adds excitement to the proceedings and Gene Tierney is a creditable second lead. Yet it's Richard Widmark on whose shoulders the success of this film ultimately rests. It's not an easy role, as Fabian's character runs the gamut of emotional range as he struggles to wheel and deal his petty schemes amongst assorted lowlife types. Widmark proves he's well up to the challenge, creating a strong portrait of a small time hood striving for positive payoffs through his callous cleverness. It's a reminder of how talented and resourceful this actor is, and how he and Dassin meshed to create a film of impact. Dassin, of course, went on to France after this to engage in a fabulous European period, while Widmark struggled to find scripts worthy of his formidable talents, which turned out to be few and far between.

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