Night and the City
Directed by Jules Dassin
Written by Jo Eisenger from a novel by Gerald Kersh
1950/USA
Twentieth Century-Fox Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
Googin the Forger: If you ain’t got socks you can’t pull ’em up, can you?
This bleak and beautiful film noir got Jules Dassin out of the U.S. before he had his passport snatched.
The city is London. Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark) wants somehow to be a “big man”. Unfotunately for him and those who love him, he is a bad liar, a chronic whiner, and not too bright. He is the despair of his girlfriend Mary (Gene Tierney), who he routinely cadges money from or outright robs.
Mary works as a singer in a gyp joint called the Silver Fox that is owned by Phillip Nosseross (Francis L. Sullivan). Harry freelances as a bar tout luring tourists to be fleeced at Phil’s place. The morbidly obese Phil is obsessed with his wife Helen (Googie Withers), who treats him with contempt. Helen is just waiting to get a license to open a competing nightclub so she can leave Phil.
Harry thinks his big break has come when he runs into Gregorius, the father of local crime boss and wrestling promoter Kristo (Herbert Lom). Gregorius is a classical Greco-Roman wrestler who sees his sport as an art and is thoroughly disgusted by the exhibitions put on at his son’s ring. Harry believes that Kristo will let him compete in the wrestling business because he will not do anything against his father. He needs money though. This he gets from Helen by promising to get her her nightclub license.
This is the blackest of noirs and the world comes crashing down around the ears of everybody concerned. With Hugh Marlow as a token nice guy and Mike Mazurki as a wrestler called The Strangler.
This is quite good and strikingly shot. Francis L. Sullivan is the standout for me. I had only seen him in his Dickens roles previously. There he was amusing. Here he is both sinister and tragic. Gene Tierney has a comparatively tiny part for a big star. Widmark is excellent as always as a man who never really grew up.
According to the commentary, Darryl F. Zanuck was the lone producer in Hollywood who did not support the black list. Among other things, he sent Jules Dassin to film this movie on location in London. It was so far along by the time he was accused of affiliation with the Communist Party that the powers that be did not cancel the project. Dassin was ultimately reported to HUAC in 1951 by directors Edward Dmytryk and Frank Tuttle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crLKNVvft_0
Trailer
