Night and the City **** (1950, Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney, Googie Withers, Herbert Lom) – Classic Movie Review 1,583

Jules Dassin’s exciting, characterful 1950 thriller Night and the City is one of the seminal film noirs of the post-war era. It stars Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney and Googie Withers, and is shot on location in London and at Shepperton Studios.

Director Jules Dassin, producer Darryl F Zanuck and the 20th Century Fox studio come to London in 1950 for the exciting, characterful documentary film noir thriller Night and the City, made in the style of Dassin’s 1948 classic The Naked City. One of the seminal film noirs of the post-war era, it is all about doomy mood, low-life atmosphere and quirky character, not about its pulpy plot.

Richard Widmark stars as a Henry Fabian, a duplicitous small-time grifter and nightclub tout who tries to become a big-time player as a wrestling promoter but comes up against fight game racketeer Kristo (Herbert Lom). He plots to take control of the professional wrestling game from Kristo by manipulating him through his father, retired wrestling star Gregorius the Great (Stanislaus Zbyszko). Widmark sticks out like a sore thumb in the London setting but fits perfectly into the grifter milieu.

If the plot, based on British writer Gerald Kersh’s novel, which Dassin said he had never read, is surprisingly and disappointingly routine, there are many other things to admire about the movie. The wrestling and hustler backgrounds are flavourful, Dassin’s direction is inventive and intricate, Mutz Greenbaum [Max Greene]’s moody film noir cinematography is highly impressive and Franz Waxman’s score is outstanding.

Widmark and Lom are their usual impeccable selves, weasley and silky-smooth sinister respectively, Gene Tierney co-stars as Mary Bristol, and Googie Withers and Francis L Sullivan score strongly as The Silver Fox club owners Helen and Phil Nosseross, while there is a huge roster of esteemed British character actors in sterling support. The film is also memorable for a tough, prolonged wrestling bout between real-life celebrated professional wrestler Zbyszko and famous screen heavy Mike Mazurki (as The Strangler), a professional wrestler before turning actor.

The British version is five minutes longer at 101 minutes, with a more upbeat ending and a different score by Benjamin Frankel, but Dassin endorsed the American version as closer to his vision. Tierney was cast by Zanuck to help her through her personal problems that had made her feel suicidal.

American film and theatre director Julius ‘Jules’ Dassin (December 18, 1911 – March 31, 2008) was accused of affiliation with the Communist Party in his past but Zanuck advised him to ‘shoot the expensive scenes first, to hook the studio’ so the film got made but Dassin’s Hollywood career ended overnight. He moved to France, and later Greece, to continue his career. His next film was the 1955 Rififi [Du Rififi chez les Hommes], for which he received a Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival.

The Academy Film Archive has now preserved Dassin’s Night and the City, including the British and pre-release versions.

It was remade as Night and the City in 1992 by Irwin Winkler with Robert De Niro and Jessica Lange starring. Its closing credits say: ‘Dedicated to Jules Dassin’.

The cast are Richard Widmark as Harry Fabian, Gene Tierney (singing voice dubbed by Maudie Edwards) 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, Aubrey Dexter as Mr Chilk, Maureen Delany as Anna Siberia/ O’Leary, Stanislaus Zbyszko as Gregorius the Great, Mike Mazurki as The Strangler, Ada Reeve as Molly, Charles Farrell as Mickey Beer, Ken Richmond as Nikolas of Athens, Edward Chapman as Hoskins, James Hayter as Figler, and Gibb McLaughlin as Googin.

The US version was released as a Region 1 DVD in February 2005 in the The Criterion Collection and in Region 2 by the BFI in October 2007. Criterion issued the film on Blu-ray as a two-disc edition with  both US and UK versions in August 2015. In September 2015, the BFI released the film on Blu-ray, with both versions.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1,583

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