Die Nacht von Soho

In his career Robert DeNiro has done four remakes of classic films of which Night And The City is one of them. The other three are We're No Angels, Cape Fear, and Frankenstein. In redoing parts made immortal by Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum, Boris Karloff, and in this case Richard Widmark, DeNiro has wisely chosen not to imitate any of these people, instead whatever you think of the final product, he's certainly put out his own interpretation on these roles.

From the shadow world of the London underworld scene where American expatriate Richard Widmark operated to the streets of New York in the Nineties, the plot of Night And The City has essentially remained the same except, and this is critical for the ending. DeNiro must have loved the fact that his Tribeca Productions got to film in and around New York, especially in Tribeca.

Widmark is a small time hood, DeNiro is a cheap shyster lawyer, the kind that lawyer jokes are made about. He hears them and he's oblivious to them. What he's not oblivious to is the success he sees around him. It's personified by Cliff Gorman who runs a successful bar where DeNiro tells his war stories. It's also even more personified by Alan King who is a boxing promoter with some underworld connections. He's risen to the top in a very tough racket.

DeNiro tries to enter King's world and buys King's reluctant acceptance with using King's older brother Jack Warden who is a retired fighter living in an old age home. If you remember what happens in the original Night And The City, you pretty much know what is going to happen here and for the most part it does.

The legal profession doesn't necessarily attract guys like DeNiro, he's no Louis Brandeis, he's not about to publish articles in Harvard Law Review. But with him lying and conning is second nature, he does it like he breathes. Even Jessica Lange who is Gorman's wife and who DeNiro is carrying on with, he lies to her and worse because he needs money. He'd do all this if he wasn't a lawyer.

The cast is an incredibly select and good one of New Yorkers themselves who can play these parts like second nature. Even Jessica Lange who is a native of Minnesota is New York enough for her part. One role I have to call attention to is that of Margo Winkler. She has one scene as a judge with lawyer DeNiro whom obviously she's dealt with before. She throws him and his put up accident case out of court in a really terrific way.

The film would rate a lot higher with me had the original ending from Jules Dassin's classic version been kept. It wasn't and it really cheapens the impact of the film. Other than that this version of Night And The City is a good film with a great cast of players to perform it.

An ambulance chasing lawyer decides to become a boxing promoter in NYC. However he comes into conflict with money lenders and the local mob. He finds that his talk and promises are meaningless unless he can back them up and he digs himself into deeper trouble with every word.

This is a very low key NY drama in De Niro's career - more typical of the bottom feeders he played in the 70's than the powerful mob figures he has played more recently. This has a depressing feel of inevitability about it - you can see the problems in Fabian's plans long before they happen, giving the film a feel of small time from the very start. This isn't a story about small time making it big, rather a story of a hustler who talks himself into a corner. The story is therefore quite compelling, despite it being very low key, the only weakness being the romance subplot and the fact that it is quite depressing.

De Niro is good as Fabian, his best scenes are when he's talking, trying to create something that isn't. However his character isn't totally believable and when it all comes falling down it isn't that well done. Jessica Lange is good but doesn't have that much to do and again her character isn't convincing when the bad times come. Support is good from the likes of Eli Wallach, Jack Warner, Alan King and others.

Overall this is a good film with an overall air of realism. Not one of De Niro's best and indeed it has it's weaknesses but it's quite good.

Night and the City is directed by Irwin Winkler and adapted to screenplay by Richard Price from the novel written by Gerald Kersh. It stars Robert De Niro, Jessica Lange, Cliff Gorman, Jack Warden, Alan King, Eli Wallach and Barry Primus. Music is by James Newton Howard and cinematography by Tak Fujimoto.

Ambulance chasing lawyer Harry Fabian (De Niro) has grand designs to be a boxing promoter. Unfortunately this ruffles the feathers of a local promoter who is not exactly known for his kindness...

It's often unfair to do down a remake of a classic film, with the rule of thumb being we are asked to judge said remake on its own terms. However, Winkler's neo-noir remake of Jules Dassin's brilliant 1950 film noir of the same name just lacks the edginess or urgency to make a mark.

It's not down to performances of the cast or the tech production in general, in fact De Niro, Warden and the under written Lange are watchable, while Fujimoto's photography around the New York locations is superlative. Yet the characters as written here, in the shift from postwar London to a thrumming NYC, have no psychological pangs to drive the picture forward.

Harry trudges from one slice of idiocy to another, with a big plot development making no sense, and all the time there's ill placed humour hanging over the plot to further compound the feeling we are watching a disjointed attempt at neo-noir nirvana. While the conclusion here is weak and kind of a cheat.

The makers dedicated the film to Dassin, that's a nice sentiment, but really they should have honoured him by making a far better movie in the spirit of the great director himself. 5/10

The picture deals an ambitious, fast-talking lawyer named Harry Fabian(Robert De Niro, Richard Widmark role) in N.Y.C., he's a hustler with several money-making schemes . Harry concocts a plot as boxing's small-time promoter . But he makes erroneous friends, the old boxer's brother(Alan King), a tough gangster. Harry is the role who fills completely the movie , he survives as person who reports false crime in the trials. Harry becoming involved with mobsters and an affair with his barman's spouse(Jessica Lange). But his plans go awry and he's on the run for his life. The story terminates with a persecution excellently filmed with all its rawness .

This noir urban/drama packs good performances though Robert De Niro is overacting. Nice interpretation by Jessica Lange , the only character who shows a bit of kindness on Harry. Supporting casting is frankly well, as Cliff Gorman, Eli Wallach, Jack Warden, Barry Primus, Michael Badalucco, among others , furthermore cameo role by Richard Price, screenplay's author. Dark cinematography by Tak Fujimoto and atmospheric and effective musical score by James Newton Howard. This version about Harry downfall lacks punch and dramatic weight, it results to be much better the classic adaptation (1955), a real masterpiece, set in London with Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney and Herbert Lom. This inferior new version is dedicated to Jules Dassin, the magnificent director of the original picture and adapted from the novel by Gerard Kersh. The motion picture is regularly directed by Irwin Winkler, usual producer of Robert De Niro films and occasionally filmmaker.

How did Robert De Niro go from a performance like Max Cady in "Cape Fear" to Harry Fabian in "Night And The City"?? One of his best to one of his worst.

Plot In A Paragraph: Harry Fabian is a fast-talking lawyer. He sues and settles, looking to make it big as he carries on an affair with the wife of the owner of his local hang out. While losing a case to a local mobster who fronts as a sports promoter, Fabian senses his future as a boxing promoter. For protection from the mobster, he recruits the boss's older brother as his "judge of talent" he books a hall, he orders posters. Soon he's in debt waiting for the big night to rake in the cash. His sweetheart wants to leave her husband, so she needs Fabian's help to get a liquor license to set up her own bar. All the while the mobster is still making trouble.

Jessica Lange and Jack Warden are the best actors on display here, even if you never understand Lange's characters loyalty to Fabian even after he ruined her dream. As for De Niro he seems to be trying far too hard, maybe it was poor directing?? And his acting in the Alley at the end is woeful.

The only reason I'm glad I watched this to the end was the fact that I got to hear Freddie Mercury sing 'The Great Pretender' over the closing credits which was a nice surprise.