Night and the City

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.

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.

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.

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 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