Jules Dassin

Night and the City

Night and the City

Two-bit hustler Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark) longs for “a life of ease and plenty.” Trailed by an inglorious history of go-nowhere schemes, he tries to hatch a lucrative plan with a famous wrestler. But there is no easy money in this underworld of shifting alliances, bottomless graft, and pummeled flesh—and Fabian soon learns the horrible price of his ambition. Luminously shot in the streets of London while Hollywood blacklisters back home were closing in on director Jules Dassin, Night and the City, also starring Gene Tierney, is film noir of the first order, and one of Dassin’s crowning achievements.

Film Info

  • United States
  • 1950
  • 95 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.33:1
  • English
  • Spine #274

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • Complete 101-minute British version of the film
  • Audio commentary from 2005 with film scholar Glenn Erickson
  • Interview with director Jules Dassin from 2005
  • Excerpts from a 1972 television interview with Dassin
  • Comparison of the scores for the British and American versions of the film by historian Christopher Husted
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Paul Arthur

    New cover by Owen Smith

Purchase Options

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • Complete 101-minute British version of the film
  • Audio commentary from 2005 with film scholar Glenn Erickson
  • Interview with director Jules Dassin from 2005
  • Excerpts from a 1972 television interview with Dassin
  • Comparison of the scores for the British and American versions of the film by historian Christopher Husted
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Paul Arthur

    New cover by Owen Smith
Night and the City
Cast
Richard Widmark
Harry Fabian
Gene Tierney
Mary Bristol
Googie Withers
Helen Nosseross
Hugh Marlowe
Adam Dunn
Francis L. Sullivan
Philip Nosseross
Herbert Lom
Kristo
Stanislaus Zbyszko
Gregorius
Mike Mazurki
The Strangler
Charles Farrell
Mickey Beer
Credits
Director
Jules Dassin
Screenplay
Jo Eisenger
From the novel by
Gerald Kersh
Music
Franz Waxman
Cinematography
Max Greene
Art direction
C. P. Norman

Current

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Jules Dassin on Night and the City
Jules Dassin on Night and the City
Night and the City was made in 1950, under circumstances almost as tense as those in the film. Knowing he was about to be blacklisted during the Communist witch hunts of the McCarthy era, director Jules Dassin fled to London, where he briskly made th…
Night and the City and the Guardian
Night and the City and the Guardian
Guardian film editor Andrew Pulver, the author of the BFI Film Classics monograph on Jules Dassin’s Night and the City, has distilled his appreciation of the film into a column for the paper. “It’s the title that gets you first…
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