This classic film noir follows Harry Fabian, an ambitious, low-life hustler, as he schemes and betrays people who are themselves betraying other people.Richard Widmark is terrific as Harry from the first scene, where he goes from shiftiness to fury to breezy charm in a few seconds. Harry is a terrific character who oozes desperation and self-delusion. He's smart enough to get himself in trouble but never catches on to the con he's running on himself.The rest of the cast is terrific as well, particularly Stanislaus Zbyszko and Mike Mazurki as angry wrestlers whose fight is one of the movie's highlights.The cinematography is gorgeous, particularly as things fall apart and Harry finds himself in the titular city night. The movie moves briskly through its dark, complex plot, in which bad people keep making bad decisions as though actively chasing unhappiness and disaster. I wasn't sure whether I would give this movie an 8 or 9 rating until that final five minutes, which is incredible. This is a must-see if you like film noir.

A small-time grifter and nightclub tout (Richard Widmark) takes advantage of some fortuitous circumstances and tries to become a big-time player as a wrestling promoter.Jules Dassin can do film noir. And interestingly, he seems to do it best when he is a hated man. At the time this film was made, he was recently kicked out of Hollywood for his alleged Communist sympathies. And what does he do? A one-two punch of this film and "Rififi", probably his two finest works.Of course, some credit must be given to cameraman Mutz Greenbaum. Any time you have noir, it has to look the part -- the genre is just as much an art form as it is a kind of plot.

In NIGHT AND THE CITY, Richard Widmark plays a petty, sulking, sneering, scheming grifter named Harry Fabian who, as Hugh Marlowe points out in the movie, is "an artist without an art." As the very dangerous criminal kingpin Kristo (Herbert Lom) warns: "Born a hustler, you'll DIE a hustler." Fabian proceeds to weasel his way into promoting professional wrestling; not exactly standard fare for your upper-class films noir, but so beautifully directed by Jules Dassin that it doesn't really matter WHAT the storyline's about. Mike Mazurki as "Strangler" comes dangerously close to stealing the show (NIGHT AND THE CITY is nothing if not a showcase for this VERY underrated performer), especially since Widmark often comes across as little more than a petulant child, but, by the end, Widmark's hitting on all four cylinders and the end is absolutely fantastic. (Gene Tierney is also outstanding as Widmark's long-suffering enabler.) One of the Great Ones.

Why is it that films noir have such spurious titles? The German title, "Die Ratte von Soho" / "The Rat of Soho" seems a more suitably lurid fit, certainly as a hook. To go with the spurious title there's a spurious introduction on the theme of Night and the City, which is at least easy on the eye, though fortunately brief. What the film is really about is the existential failure of one Harry Fabian, a cheap conman, but full of life. The movie is a very sordid one, an initial lecture is given to a bunch of *ahem* companions in the Silver Fox nightclub about how to fleece the customers, there is however to be no actual theft from them on the premises, although, suggestively, what happens to the customers on leaving the club is of no concern to the management. A friend of my brother has post-traumatic stress from being the victim of such a honey trap whilst drunk in London this year, so I really connected with the cutting edge of nastiness this film provides. Although this movie is set in a moonlit criminal demi-monde, there are about five separate love stories, arranged in a complicated geometry. These are what pull the heartstrings and kept me rapt throughout. The central love story is Mary's love for Harry, who does little more than use her. She sees a vitality in him that attracts her helplessly, as if he's a magnet, and overlooks all his faults for this. He's a hamstrung man, who's damaged heart spills out in a final scene of electrifying intensity. Richard Widmark, who I have rarely appreciated as an actor, here throws everything at his role but the kitchen sink and deserves all the praise he gets.Night and the City is an absolutely heartbreaking film that I realised had really shaken me up after I left the cinema. I had fish and chips to celebrate in Cockney style. Peripherally I think it's worth mentioning that there is more than one version of this movie, and it can look a bit strange because a lot of the build up to the, possibly overwrought, action of the denouement is cut in what I believe is the American version. Would pay to rent out the Criterion DVD of this movie as it apparently has explanatory extras on this subject. I would also like to express my admiration for the seductive qualities of Googie Withers' portrayal of Helen Nosseross, and for the horrid wrestling scene in the movie which actually aroused this hysteric feeling in me, that happens when a fight starts in real life, and which films very rarely manage to achieve.