Night and the City - 1950

Directed by Jules Dassin Night and the City tells the story of Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark), a hustler in post war London always looking for an angle, and always failing. After a meeting with retired wrestling legend Gregorious (Stanislaus Zbyszko), Fabian devises a plan to promote a wrestling match and thus get rich. In order to do so though he must avoid local wrestling promotor and underworld boss Kristo (Herbert Lom) who also happens to be Gregorious' son.

Shot on location in London the film shimmers with brilliance, both the performances from Wdimark, and Gene Tierney as Mary Bristol, Fabian's lover, as well as the strong supporting cast of character actors. The chiaroscuro lighting is sumptuous and fatalistic in equal measure, as Fabian scurries around the city looking for the finance to promote his wrestling match, Mutz Greenbaum, credited as Max Greene, does a wonderful job of capturing London, and rarely has it looked so stunning. The script also bristles with intensity and beautifully captures the desperation of Widmark's Fabian. The film is also notable for is complete lack of sympathetic characters, but what it manages to achieve is making each of the characters human, in world which has little to no regard for such a concept.

There are number of key seqeunces which elevate this film above a lot of the bog standard film noirs, the highlight being a seemingly endless, brutally and violent wrestling match, on which the hopes and dreams of Fabian hang. During this sequence, I found my self shifting closer and closer to the edge of my seat. The one scene highlights the genius of the film. I was gripped by a series of characters for whom I felt no sympathy and yet could not help but empthasise with their plight. Widmark in particular was a man on the cusp of crazy; his performance a series of sweating, pleading moments as he tried, with all his power, to drag himself up in the world and make something of his life.

A superbly brilliant piece of noir filmmaking from a stunningly talented directed, who made the film in the UK after he was blacklisted and forced to leave America. Night and the City is a groundbreaking Noir thriller with some great performances and a devestating ending. A must for any fan of film noir.