Night and the City (1950)
Directed by Jules Dassin who I’ve always assumed was French (with a name like that he should be) but was actually an American son of Russian immigrants. In my defence, he is best known as the director of the classic caper thriller 'Riffifi' filmed in France and made several European films after falling foul of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anti-Communist witch-hunt of the early 1950’s.
Night and the City is one of the great black and white film noirs. Set in London it tells the story of small-time grifter Harry Fabian, played by Richard Wydmark, and yet another of his doomed get rich quick schemes. Herbert Lom, the then go-to actor for crooked foreigners, plays wrestling promoter Kristo.
Despite being essentially a Hollywood studio-financed film, it has the look and feel of the best of the European film noir genre, using on-the-fly location and night-for-night shooting that shows a gritty and dangerous London rather than the more usual tourist/travelogue backgrounds used in many films at the time. Dassin was helped here by having the veteran German cinematographer Max Greene (aka Mutz Greenbaum) behind the camera.
If you enjoy films about London’s criminal underworld or just very good noirs then this is a must-see.
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