This is a fullblown Robert de Niro flick, who as a character is running on empty: no money from the ATM, no money from work. What to do? He creates a pipedream and is gonna organize a boxingmatch with no knowledge of it and with no money to back it. That spells trouble. Night and the City has it's other star in the name of Jessica Lange. Both Lange and de Niro make "Night and the City" a joy to watch. It is a light drama although the feelgood factor is at such a high that you could also call it a feelgood drama.You just gotta love the character de Niro plays, he fails at everything but gets away with it and has another even bigger project destined to fail lined up right after the earlier misfortunes. He is truly the great pretender, but feelin' good at it!If you like de Niro's work you should definitely see this lighter drama, because he dances a tightrope between a comedy and a drama and does so very convincing. The dialogues are funky and full of wit. The story is simple but connivingly great and has a great dynamic. It has a nice throwaway feel to it, but however lighthearted it is, the story deals with heinous deceit. "Night and the City" has become so dear to me over the years, because the characters are so sympathetic: while failing at everything they still hold on to their dreams and on to eachother's love. De Niro and Lange are just to die for in this New York Tale of love and deceit.

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.

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.