Night and the City - Criterion Collection
by Jules Dassin
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Francis L. Sullivan, Gene Tierney, Googie Withers, Hugh Marlowe, Richard WidmarkDirector: Jules Dassin
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-02-01
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion
Movie Reviews of Night and the City - Criterion Collection
Movie Review: Noir masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
"Night and the City" is classic film noir based on the Gerald Kersh novel with Richard Widmark as Harry Fabian, a two-bit hustler scheming to become a big-time fight promoter in London.
Widmark is superb in what may be his best performance. He brings to mind James Cagney at times, but he's actually more like Bugs Bunny, full of bravado and nervous energy.
And let's not forget Mike Mazurski as the Strangler, as brutish as he was playing Moose Malloy in Murder, My Sweet but with a hint of more intelligence, and portly Francis L. Sullivan, a "fat man" in the style of Sydney Green street, but more tragic. Herbert Lom, Googie Withers, and Stanislaw Zbyazko, once a real star of Roman-Greco wrestling, are also excellent. Gene Tierney, however, is superfluous as Widmark's girlfriend, and Hugh Marlowe, who plays the sort of bland role he was often assigned in 20th Century Fox films, has little to do but express his disapproval for Fabian's way of life.
The look of the film is one of its strengths with scenes cast in a luminous black contrasted with almost ghostly whites.
Dismissed as lurid nonsense about undesirable characters when released (Variety chimed in with one of the few positive reviews), "Night and the City" is a masterpiece that hasn't dated a bit. It has a modern sensibility that makes it more contemporary than the 1992 remake (with Robert DeNiro in Widmark's role).
Brian W. Fairbanks
Summary of Night and the City - Criterion Collection
Two-bit hustler Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark) aches for a life of ease and plenty. Trailed by an inglorious history of go-nowhere schemes, he stumbles upon a chance of a lifetime in the form of legendary wrestler Gregorius the Great (Stanislaus Zbyszko). But there is no easy money in this underworld of shifting alliances, bottomless graft, and pummeled flesh-and soon Fabian learns the horrible price of his ambition. Luminously shot in the streets of London, Jules Dassin's Night and the City is film noir of the first order and one of the director's crowning achievements.Richard Widmark never had better exercise for his Cagney-like bouncing-ball energy than Night and the City, a classic film noir about a hustler's meteoric flame-out. Although acknowledged as one of the great noir pictures, it's actually set and shot in London, which gives an exotic, displaced novelty to the usual noir universe. Widmark's performance as Harry Fabian is a jibbering, wheedling, giggling tour de force, as Harry schemes his way to setting up a wrestling match and finally establishing himself as a "somebody." Instead, he manages to irritate the underworld heavies (memorably, Herbert Lom and Francis L. Sullivan) whose fingers are already deeply into the criminal pie. Gene Tierney and Googie Withers are the women--one good, one bad--who witness Harry's descent. This was director Jules Dassin's final project for a Hollywood studio before the blacklist forced him out, and he packs the film with tortured camera angles and spidery noir shadows; the movie's a real visual clambake. Night and the City was remade, tiredly, with Robert De Niro in 1992. Bonus: See how strongly this movie has influenced Martin Scorsese. --Robert Horton
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