Les forbans de la nuit

The rise and fall of small-time hustler Harry Fabain is chronicled in this noir thriller by Director Jules Dassin.

This was Dassin's American swansong, completed just before being named by fellow director Ed Dmytryk before HUAK as a "communist," thus ending Dassin's American career.

He brought to "Night and the City" all the technique he acquired over years of quality movie making. Although born in Connecticut and raised and trained in the US, Dassin's work always had the look and feel of his European counterpart, Carol Reed.

The script here is a decent one with surprise turns, avoiding predictability. Franz Waxman's high pitched score adds excitement to the proceedings and Gene Tierney is a creditable second lead.

Yet it's Richard Widmark on whose shoulders the success of this film ultimately rests. It's not an easy role, as Fabian's character runs the gamut of emotional range as he struggles to wheel and deal his petty schemes amongst assorted lowlife types.

Widmark proves he's well up to the challenge, creating a strong portrait of a small time hood striving for positive payoffs through his callous cleverness.

It's a reminder of how talented and resourceful this actor is, and how he and Dassin meshed to create a film of impact.

Dassin, of course, went on to France after this to engage in a fabulous European period, while Widmark struggled to find scripts worthy of his formidable talents, which turned out to be few and far between.

In London, the swindler Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark) is an ambitious loser, frequently taking money from his girlfriend Mary Bristol (Gene Tierney). When he meets the famous Greco-Roman wrestler Gregorius the Great (Stanislaus Zbyszko) in the arena of his son and the wrestling lord Kristo (Herbert Lorn), he plans a scheme to become successful. He cheats Greorious, promising clean combats in his own arena, and the old man accepts the partnership. However, without money to promote the fight, he invites his boss and owner of a nightclub Phil Nosseross (Francis L. Sullivan) to be his partner, but is betrayed and his business fails ending in a tragedy.

"Night and the City" is a great film-noir, with many twists and another excellent performance of Richard Widmark. The story shows the underworld of London, with low-lives, hustlers, beggars, gamblers and other amoral characters through a magnificent black and white cinematography. The direction of Jules Dassin is sharp and the screenplay perfectly develops the characters and the story in an excellent pace. The Brazilian distributor Oregon Filmes / Fox has one of the best collections of movies labeled "Tesouros da Sétima Arte" ("Treasures of the Seventh Art"). Unfortunately, most of their DVDs shamefully have problems while playing the film, maybe because of the lack of quality of the laboratory they use. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Sombras do Mal" ("Shadows of Evil")

Note: On 10 October 2016, I saw this film again.

Every where Richard Widmark's loser character Harry Fabian turns in this film he finds golden opportunities smothered in bad timing. Widmark utilizes a variation of that smarmy, snickering sinister giggle-chuckle that was memorialized in Kiss of Death.It serves the actor well in this film in its toned-down form but offers up a sort of pathetic body language for Fabian, the character. It may be that this American ex-patriot character is just way out of his depth. His hucksterism is not much appreciated by many of his acquaintances in this seedy London underworld. If Harry Fabian would simply accept that he is destined to be a 3rd rate shill and stooge,he might have fund some small pleasures. However, his mind is a shade too quick and his ambition too pumped. He's a user with not a shread of remorse about stepping on others, ripping them off, keeping one tiny step ahead of exposure. This is a superb film, squalid and sinister in its portrayal of greed, corruption and betrayal.

This gritty film, exposing the world of small time crooks in London, is a real masterpiece of film noir. The director, Jules Dassin, has captured this dark, dirty world perfectly and the black and white cinematography is superb. Richard Widmark is as despicable here as he was as Tommy Udo in "Kiss of Death"...it is a coup of casting. Francis Sullivan as Phil is great as the nightclub owner for whom Widmark shills and Googie Withers, one of my favorites of British film, is awesome as the unfaithful wife. Gene Tierney is wasted as Widmark's girlfriend...she does not seem to have much to do. Other support players are strong and you get to see Herbert Lom without his toupee! This is one of the best in the film noir genre and the ending pulls no punches. This is not a happy, feel good film. Highly recommended.

Jules Dassin bid American cinema adieu with Night and the City after he was blacklisted by the dreaded HUAC committee and what an adieu that was. A hard-boiled film noir taking place in seedy, morally bankrupt London that deserves a place in the noir pantheon along such gems as The Third Man and Double Indemnity.

Night and the City chronicles the life and ambitions of small-time hustler Harry Fabian (played perfectly by Richard Widmark), a man full of plans for breaking big and delusions of grandeur, much to the amusement of his boss and the dismay of his girl-friend. Dassin takes us through the fascinating underworld of London, as Fabian tries to score big in the wrestling ring using his competitor's father to make a name and money for himself. Through a series of encounters and lots of scheming, he will find himself in a very strange position. Like an obese cabaret owner comments, he has it all but he's a dead man.

It's near impossible to find flaws with this movie. From the inspired script to the very tight plotting with never a dull moment, to the grim black and white cinematography that uses London's dreary streets as another character that comments on the action and mood, Night and the City is a truly fascinating glimpse in a kind of cinema long gone. A classic film noir gem that excels in both what it presents to the viewer and what it leaves to the imagination. The approaching steps of someone echoing off screen as we watch Fabian's increasing distress (only to discover it's his girl-friend, played by the gorgeous Gene Tierney). The cat and mouse game as Fabian with a reward on his head is being chased by every hoodlum and beggar in London that recalls Fritz Lang's noir godfather M (1931).

Apart from technical proficiency and a maddening atmosphere, Night and the City really succeeds in portraying one of the best and most memorable character ensembles in the film noir universe. Everyone is out for themselves, ready to backstab and use each other on the drop of a hat. Yet we know they're doomed from the start. There's no way out for them, caught as they are in a neverending web of betrayal, false hopes and despair. What might appear moralistic (ie the backstabbers get their just deserts in the end) is anything but, since everything is done with delicate irony in the mold of ancient Greek tragedy. There's no deus ex machina but there's plenty of nemesis divina. The gods are laughing at the tragic fate of our heroes and like a Japanese proverb goes, "the gods only laugh when men pray to them for wealth"...

The American moral guardians of the time might have cost American cinema a visionary of Dassin's calibre, but we were lucky enough that he found a new home overseas. Night and the City carries all the bittersweet nature of his adios and remains a near flawless movie.