Night and the City Poster

Night and the City (1950)

Crime | Mystery | Thriller
Rayting:   8.0/10 12.1K votes
Country: UK | USA
Language: English
Release date: 27 November 1950

A small time grifter and nightclub tout takes advantage of some fortuitous circumstances and tries to become a big time player as a wrestling promoter.

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wglenn 11 March 2006

The more films I see by Jules Dassin, the more I wonder why he isn't better known or regarded as a director. It's been 56 years since he was blacklisted by the McCarthy-ites, but his reputation never seems to have recovered, at least not in the United States. Hopefully, more DVD releases like the Criterion version of Night and the City will bring deserved attention to his excellent body of work.

I want to call Night and the City a classic film noir, which it is, but that seems too limiting. It might be better to say that Dassin uses film noir to dig a little deeper into our human strivings and sufferings. There's a lot of sweat and desperation in the midst of this entertaining and well-paced film, and not just on the part of Harry Fabian, the small-time hustler who dreams of being great. We encounter a typically smooth and dangerous mobster who also happens to have a difficult relationship with his disappointed father. A wealthy but thugish club owner, who might be a caricature in another film noir, can't seem to express his powerful and animalistic feelings for his beautiful wife. She seems like a scheming femme fatale but turns out to have an almost quaint dream of her own. In the end, we're in the muck and mire of human foibles, a kind of low-level Shakespearean tragedy that we all live out to one degree or another. This story just happens to take place in the shadowy underworld of 1950 London.

There's a poignancy to this film that separates it from others in the noir genre. Part of this lies in the strong writing, part in the excellent acting ensemble. This is one of those rare and remarkable films where the secondary and minor actors seem like they were all giving the performance of their career. Richard Widmark probably could have done with a bit more subtlety as Harry Fabian; he feels a bit histrionic at times, but his manic energy is important to the pace of the film and the feeling of increasing desperation. Gene Tierney and Hugh Marlowe don't get to do much and seem a bit lost among all the other great roles. In an interview with Dassin included with the DVD, the director says he put Tierney in the film as a favor to producer Daryl Zanuck, adding her role at the last minute, and it feels like that at times. But, hey, it's Gene Tierney.

Herbert Lom delivers a chilling performance as Kristo the mobster, and Stanislaus Zbyszko is a miracle as his father, the once-famous wrestler Gregorious who can't stand that his son has helped kill the great tradition of Greco-Roman wrestling with his shoddy wrestling matches. The great Mike Mazurki does well as The Strangler, and the wrestling match he gets into with Gregorious may be the highlight of the film. Zbyszko and Mazurki were both former wrestlers, and the realism of their fight heightens the emotional intensity of the scene. It's the brutal scruff and claw of existence brought to life on screen for a few powerful moments.

I had never seen Francis Sullivan before, so I was pleasantly surprised by his masterful work as the club owner Nosseross. Googie Withers also does a great job as his wife Helen, managing to bring some good shading to an underwritten role. And some of the best moments of the film are delivered by minor characters such as Anna, the woman who works down on the docks; Figler, the "King of the Beggars;" and Googin the forger.

After a brief voice-over intro, Dassin starts the action with a bang, as one man chases another through the darkness of late-night London, across what

ccthemovieman-1 26 October 2006

Fmovies: It took a second look for me to enjoy this movie as it didn't really appeal much to me on the first viewing. Perhaps a better picture helped. If I had the Criterion DVD, it would be much better I'm sure but, for now, I'll have to settle for the VHS. This is a very noir-ish with a lot of dark scenes, so a good transfer is a must.

Most of the action takes place at night in London alleyways, nightclubs and gymnasiums. The storyline is a downer, that's for sure. It is a rough and sometimes depressing story. Richard Widmark, as "Harry Fabian," has the starring role and plays a real loser, a desperate man who always has a scheme concocted but usually messes up. Some critics think this is Widmark's best performance ever. Francis Sullivan is interesting as the nightclub owner. Gene Tierney gets second billing but doesn't have much of role in here.

Some memorable scenes include a wrestling match with big Mike Mazurki and "Gregorious." I'm not much into wrestling but this was an amazing match, extremely intense.

This film is a bit different from most American-based film noirs. It's not a pleasant story, it's moody, and it has a certain fascination to it.

secondtake 1 April 2010

Night and the City (1950)

A brilliant, gutsy, tightly made and beautifully photographed movie, top to bottom.

Richard Widmark is in one his best roles here as the small-time guy on the make who gets in over his head. And around him are character actors (wrestlers) and a very secondary lead, Gene Tierney, all playing vivid, sharply chiseled characters.

But it's Widmark's movie, and he is convincing when thrilled and when beaten down. We see how he believes in himself, and how disillusioned he appears to others. And London at night, filled with dead ends and narrow alleys, is ominous and glistening. The plot is interwoven and not at all simple, but thanks to an ongoing logic supplied by American director Jules Dassin, it is never confusing, just increasingly interesting.

The photography, and associated lighting, has to be admired even by people used to great noir filming. The shadows here are dark but always with a hint of detail--none of the total inky blackness blanking out large parts of the scene as in some American noirs. It's really a matter of great finesse to pull this off with such consistency, and it makes the movie a visual masterpiece. Cinematographer Mutz Greenbaum (Max Greene) is barely known outside of this film, so perhaps we can give Dassin a lot of the credit for the look, and the really dynamic framing, of so much of it.

We don't usually associate British films with great film noir styling, but here is one of the best, though the two leads (Widmark and Tierney) and the director are American, and this was officially a 20th Century Fox production. This comes just a year after that other great British noir of this period, The Third Man, with strong British creds but again American leading actors. If you like Night and the City (and you almost have to, it's really amazing stuff), you'll definitely like Thieve's Highway.

And Widmark? My opinion of him only grows over time. It's easy to typecast him in your head the way you might Robert Mitchum, but both actors have extraordinary presence of depth on the screen. Here you might get the best of Widmark.

Ham_and_Egger 2 March 2005

Night and the City fmovies. For some reason Night and the City doesn't seem to the credit it deserves; possibly because it was director Jules Dassin's last American film before being blacklisted as a Communist. I wasn't born until the Cold War was winding down, but it seems that with movies like Night and the City to his credit, we could have turned a blind eye even if he really was a Commie.

Honestly this film deserves to rank up there with the likes of The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, or Out of the Past. The scenes of our "hero" Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark, at his best) being chased through London's East End are as starkly beautiful as anything you'll ever see on film. For several minutes there isn't a single shade of gray, everything is literally black or white and the camera itself seems to have joined in hunting Harry. Then there's the long, semi-grotesque wrestling scene that took me totally by surprise, it's like something out of Fellini.

Widmark is utterly believable as Fabian, a charming two-bit grifter who works as a "club tout" but hatches one ill-fated get-rich-quick scheme after another. The rest of the cast is excellent as well, there isn't a cardboard character in the bunch, except maybe Harry's girl Marry (Gene Tierney) though its really more a flaw in the character than the actress. Mary's saintliness may be the writers' only slip-up though, every other character has the sort of depth that makes the film a joy to watch. They inexorably follow their own motivations, which, of course, rely on those of someone else, who inevitably has a goal of his or her own, which will eventually derail the plan of someone whom someone else is counting on (actually, the film is a little less twisted than this review ;-) Criterion has just (2/05) recently released Night and the City and never has the phrase "filmed in glorious black and white" been more appropriate. Before this film seemed to lurk in the shadows of AMC or TCM, only occasionally showing its face, as if it were one of the genre's minor works. Now, if you haven't seen it you have no excuse, and you're only hurting yourself.

Bucs1960 24 November 2001

This gritty film, exposing the world of small time crooks in London, is a real masterpiece of film noir. The director, Jules Dassin, has captured this dark, dirty world perfectly and the black and white cinematography is superb. Richard Widmark is as despicable here as he was as Tommy Udo in "Kiss of Death"...it is a coup of casting. Francis Sullivan as Phil is great as the nightclub owner for whom Widmark shills and Googie Withers, one of my favorites of British film, is awesome as the unfaithful wife. Gene Tierney is wasted as Widmark's girlfriend...she does not seem to have much to do. Other support players are strong and you get to see Herbert Lom without his toupee! This is one of the best in the film noir genre and the ending pulls no punches. This is not a happy, feel good film. Highly recommended.

harryfableson 3 March 2006

Imagine Charles Dickens had to make a bit of extra money by writing B-movies in Hollywood and you might get close to imagining this haunting, wonderful film. It fuses the best traditions of film noir with a very British atmosphere: a cast of character actors playing vividly drawn and desperate people.

There's a mournful tone to the whole film, like a boat's siren drifting across a foggy Thames. All the characters seem to be reaching for their hearts desire, wanting to believe in a dream of a better tomorrow, in something that's real and true for them. But they rip into each other trying to get there. That gives the film a poignant, tragic trajectory.

A compelling central performance by Richard Widmark as Harry Fabian, a man with flair and drive and an infectious hope, but a man who lacks something like the moral fibre to be honest. A man always looking for a shortcut. A nearly-great man, an almost classically tragic figure. Googie Withers is a revelation as Helen, a woman who seems cynical but has hopes and dreams just like Fabian (just like all our characters).

So much I haven't even mentioned, the sweaty muscular wrestling scenes are are action scenes of the best kind, in that they drive and skew the plot as well as holding our attention. So many good performances. And a film that speaks to our hopes and our flaws and the tragic spaces between the two.

Any Londoner or person who loves the atmosphere of that city should check it out too, some lovely old footage of Trafalgar Square and Picadilly.

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