- Directed by Jules Dassin and based on a novel by Gerald Kersh, Night and the City relates the tragic tale of Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark), whose imagined life of "ease and plenty" forms a stark contrast with his actual experience of perpetual struggle and need. Oddly enough, Harry is addicted to both grifting and being grifted. When he's not leading American tourists off to be fleeced in seedy London nightclubs, he's stealing from his sympathetic girlfriend Mary (Gene Tierney) or begging from his various disreputable associates (James Hayter, Maureen Delaney, Gibb McLaughlin, Ada Reeve, Charles Farrell). And yet, despite his own criminal tendencies, Harry also finds himself drawn to "can't lose" situations that don't pay off and whatever "chance of a lifetime" happens to cross his path this week.
- Harry enters the film fleeing through some dark London alleyways trying to escape a debt collector. After a quick detour through Mary's purse, he lands in front of nightclub owner Philip Nosseross (Francis L. Sullivan), whose wife Helen (Googie Withers) goads him into becoming business partners with Harry. Harry's latest scheme is a wrestling promotion deal that relies on the famous Gregorious the Great (Stanislaus Zbyszko) staving off interference from his son Kristo (Herbert Lom), who "controls all wrestling in London." Complicating matters further is the involvement of a ruthless modern wrestler nicknamed "The Strangler" (Mike Mazurki), who indeed lives up to his name before the movie is complete.
- At this point, you may have noticed that this film features a seemingly inexhaustible supply of characters. In fact, Night at the City's greatest problem is that it tries to cram all of these fascinating people into a story that doesn't grant most of them nearly enough screentime. As a result, I feel like I never really got to know second-billed Tierney or fourth-billed Hugh Marlowe, both of whom get much less to do than, say, the film's many wrestlers, two of whom engage in a brutal battle that stretches for at least five minutes. One could even argue that Helen Nosseross deserves her own separate movie, given the fascinating weirdness and complexity of her relationship with her husband. The only person we really get to know is Harry who, despite Widmark's impressive tour-de-force performance, isn't quite enough to carry the entire film. Fortunately, even a slight misstep by Dassin still makes for a pretty good movie, and this film's many wonderful shots of London and fog-infused cinematography weigh heavily in its favor.
