Night and the City

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.

Night and the City (1992)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Remake of the 1950 Richard Widmark noir has Robert DeNiro playing Harry Fabian, a real loser who works as an attorney chasing ambulances and various other lowlifes. He finally grows tired of being one of the small guys so he tries raising enough money to start a boxing match but soon he's butting heads with mobsters. If you're looking for a direct remake then you can pretty much forget about it as this Richard Price scripted film is more comedy than anything else. Well, I can't say it's a comedy because I'm not quite certain what it is. Apparently Martin Scorsese was going to direct this but ended up backing out only six years later the picture got started up again by Winkler, who by this time decided to direct the thing himself. Big problem. Winkler's direction is all over the place and it really hurts the film as there's never any real indication that the man behind the camera knows what he's trying to do. Sometimes the overall mood is comical but at other times it turns rather dark (only to be watered down). I'm really not sure what they were going for but you certainly shouldn't expect any of the darkness of the original movie. This baby is pretty much it's own thing and even though the direction is bad there's still enough going on here to make it worth viewing. It seems DeNiro is either love or hate here but I found his performance to be rather refreshing and I found him to be very entertaining in the role. Again, he isn't as dark or as menacing of Widmark as he plays the character more happy-go-lucky and there's constantly a smile on his face as he goes from one bad situation to the next. I found these happy approach to be rather fun to see as we don't often get to see DeNiro in this type of role. It's not a complete masterpiece but if you're a fan I think you'll enjoy seeing it. Jessica Lange plays his love interest and manages to turn in a fine performance even though the screenplay doesn't offer her too much. I thought her and DeNiro, their third film together, did a nice job and I wish their scenes had been written a little better. We do get a nice supporting cast including Jack Warden as a former boxer with a bad heart who is constantly cussing or wanting to fight. He adds a lot of charm to the film each time he's in a scene. Eli Wallach has a brief role and it's always nice to see him. Cliff Gorman nearly steals the film as Lange's husband who doesn't know everything that's going on. We even get a cameo by Regis Philbin who plays himself in a scene that will remind many of the one in THE KING OF COMEDY when DeNiro busts in on Jerry Lewis. Needless to say, it's the performances that make this film worth viewing and we also get a pretty good music score as well as some nice covers of some classic tunes. If a remake should try and be completely different from the original then this movie does just that. This isn't a classic like the original film but there are enough interesting things to make it worth viewing but I'm sure most will agree when it's over that the thing should have been much, much better.

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.

NIGHT AND THE CITY (1992) *** Robert De Niro, Jessica Lange, Alan King, Cliff Gorman, Jack Warden, Barry Primus. Slice-of-low-life portrait remake of 1940 Richard Widmark flick casts De Niro as ambulance chasing attorney Harry Fabian trying to score big-time as a boxing promoter with the help of his lady love (Lange in an uncharacteristically unglamourous role) and the ex-fighter brother (Warden) of his chief nemesis (King in a humdinger of chilly malevolence as the corrupt boxing mogul). Feisty and surprisingly funny script courtesy of Richard Price (in a bit role as a doctor) has its moments of ugliness and sudden downshift into tragedy. De Niro, at times over-the-top, is the life-force to this otherwise entertaining melodrama.

The only reason I saw this movie was its filming locale, Boxers on West 4th Street in NYC. (Ironically, the bar had nothing to do with "Boxers" as in pugilists). Its not Boxers that I will remember, its the predecessor on this corner, Boxers decor was the same as the lamented JIMMY DAYS that graced this corner from about 1970 until 1989 or 1990. When Jimmy was forced out by escalating rents, Boxers moved in, keeping the exposed brick ceiling decor the same. Soon, this movie may be the only permanent record of a great NY neighborhood bar known as JIMMY DAYS. There is a Margot Kidder independent movie from the 1970s that was filmed here when it was Jimmy Days, called Willie and Phil.