Night and the City

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.

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.

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.

This is a remake of Night and the City (1950) directed by Jules Dissan, who was blacklisted by Hollywood because of actions by the House Un-American Activities Committee, and for that reason is dedicated to Dissan who had to continue his career in Europe. The original film starred Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney, Francis L. Sullivan and Herbert Lom. I haven't seen that film, but I understand that it is very good.

This film from 1992 is not bad; however for some reason its reputation isn't much. The voters at IMDb give it a rather tepid 5.7 stars out of 10 while giving the original 8 out of 10. I'm not sure why, but I think it has to do with: (1) Robert De Niro playing a non-heroic character. It certainly doesn't have anything to do with his acting. He is outstanding as Harry Fabian, flimflam low life lawyer and cheap BS artist who tries desperately to make a big splash as a fight promoter. I think most De Niro fans would prefer to see him in a more two-fisted role. At any rate, those who didn't like the movie almost certainly didn't care for De Niro's performance since his character dominates the action.

(2) The ending, which some might see as unfinished and others as disagreeable since, regardless of what transpires, Fabian is still a loser, perhaps bigger than ever.

(3) Some rather cheesy plot play. Near the end Fabian and Helen (Jessica Lange looking as fetching as ever) hide in a dead end alley among dumpsters and trash cans. Well, they should have continued running since the guys after them were only walking. Also when Fabian and Helen run out the side door of the restaurant they go the wrong way so that the heavies can see them running across the street. Had they turned left instead of right (as anybody in their situation would have done) they would not even have been seen. Furthermore, Fabian in a flamboyant gesture throws $12,000 into the air that flutters to the ground in the dead end alley. Nobody bothers to pick it up. That could happen.

What cannot be faulted is the authentic New York atmosphere created by director Irvin Winkler, who is better know as a producer, most notably of the Sylvester Stallone "Rocky" films, and the fine work by the rest of the cast, especially Alan King (Ira "Boom Boom" Grossman), Eli Wallach (Peck), Cliff Gorman (Phil Nasseros), and Jack Warden (Al Grossman). The story itself, from a novel by Gerald Kersh (script by Richard Price), is a variation on the "lovable, colorful loser makes good" theme, only in this case, like an inept noir anti-hero, he falls on his face--more than once, by the way.

No real De Niro fan should miss this. Personally I thought it was one of his best performances. The rapid fire dialogue, the fawning, pathetic, yet somehow uplifting personality were not something most actors could pull off, at least not nearly as well. De Niro became the character he portrayed.

Bottom line: definitely worth seeing. You will not be bored.

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)

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