Night and the City is a 1950 film noir based on the novel by Gerald Kersh, directed by Jules Dassin, starring Richard Widmark and Gene Tierney. Shot on location in London, the plot evolves around an ambitious hustler whose plans keep going wrong. It 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. Image File history File links The_Night_and_the_City. ... Jules Dassin (born Julius Dassin on December 18, 1911, in Middletown, Connecticut) is an American film director. ... Samuel G. Engel (December 29, 1904 – April 7, 1984) was a screenwriter and film producer from the 1930s through the 1960s. ... Gerald Kersh was a British writer. ... Jo Eisinger was a film writer whose credits include the adaption of the 1946 film Gilda and the film noir Night and the City. ... Richard Widmark in Kiss of Death Richard Widmark (born December 26, 1914 in Sunrise, Minnesota) is an Academy Award-nominated American film actor. ... Gene Tierney (November 19, 1920 – November 6, 1991) was an American film and stage actress. ... Googie Withers (born March 12, 1917 in Karachi, Pakistan) is a British actress. ... Herbert Lom [Czech IPA: ] is an international film actor. ... Franz Waxman (December 24, 1906, Königshütte, Upper Silesia (now Chorzów, Poland) - February 24, 1967, Los Angeles, California), born Franz Wachsmann, was a German-born Jewish-American composer, known for his bravura Carmen Fantasy for violin and orchestra and for his musical scores for films. ... Benjamin Frankel (January 31, 1906 – February 12, 1973) was a British composer. ... Mutz Greenbaum (February 3, 1896 – July 1968), sometimes credited as Max Greene or Max Greenbaum was a Berlin, Germany-born film cinematographer. ... Fox Plaza, the company headquarters. ... June 9 is the 160th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (161st in leap years), with 205 days remaining. ... Year 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Robert De Niro in 1988 Robert De Niro (born August 17, 1943) is a two-time Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning American film actor, director, and producer. ... Night and the City is a 1992 film remake of the 1950 film noir classic. ... Year 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This still from The Big Combo (1955) demonstrates the visual style of film noir at its most extreme. ... Gerald Kersh was a British writer. ... Jules Dassin (born Julius Dassin on December 18, 1911, in Middletown, Connecticut) is an American film director. ... Richard Widmark in Kiss of Death Richard Widmark (born December 26, 1914 in Sunrise, Minnesota) is an Academy Award-nominated American film actor. ... Gene Tierney (November 19, 1920 – November 6, 1991) was an American film and stage actress. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Look up Charlatan in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This still from The Big Combo (1955) demonstrates the visual style of film noir at its most extreme. ... The Criterion Collection logo The Criterion Collection is a privately held company that distributes authoritative consumer versions of important classic and contemporary films on DVD. It was established in 1984 as a joint venture between Janus Films and the Voyager Company. ...

Critical reaction

The film has lately been noted as groundbreaking in its lack of sympathetic characters, the punishment of its protagonist, 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 June 10, 1950 review in The New York Times, which read in part: Bosley Crowther (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American film critic. ... The New York Times is a daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed internationally. ...

"[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."

Crowther also singled out the climactic wrestling scene -- a scene often praised by contemporary critics -- for special wrath:

"...if any more cruel, repulsive picture of human brutishness than this is ever screened, this writer has no desire to see it."

The film was first re-evaluated in the 1960s, as film noir became a celebrated concept, and it has continued to receive laudatory reviews to date. Writing for Slant Magazine, Nick Schager writes in the DVD review of the film "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." Slant Magazine is a non-commercial film and music review website. ...

In the Village Voice, Michael Atkinson notes "...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." This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Tenebrism. ...

The film was remade in 1992 starring Robert DeNiro. See Night and the City (1992 film). Robert De Niro Robert De Niro, Jr. ... Night and the City is a 1992 film remake of the 1950 film noir classic. ...

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

Richard Widmark in Kiss of Death Richard Widmark (born December 26, 1914 in Sunrise, Minnesota) is an Academy Award-nominated American film actor. ... Gene Tierney (November 19, 1920 – November 6, 1991) was an American film and stage actress. ... Googie Withers (born March 12, 1917 in Karachi, Pakistan) is a British actress. ... Marlowe in Night and the City (1950) Hugh Marlowe was a film, television, stage and radio actor. ... Actor Francis L. Sullivan in Night and the City (1950) Francis L. Sullivan (January 6, 1903, London, England - November 19, 1956) was an English film and stage actor. ... Herbert Lom [Czech IPA: ] is an international film actor. ... Stanislaus Zbyszko (Polish: Stanisław Jan Cyganiewicz) (born April 1, 1879 - died September 23, 1967) was a professional wrestler popular in the United States during the 1920s. ... Mazurki in Nightmare Alley (1947) Mike Mazurki (born Mihailo Mazurski on December 25, 1907 in Tarnopol, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (now Ternopil, Ukraine); died December 9, 1990 in Glendale, California) was a Ukrainian-born actor and professional wrestler who appeared in over 100 movies. ...

References

• 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
• Criterion Collection essay by Paul Arthur
• Night and the City at All Movie Guide
• Film Noir of the Week essay