Technical information:
- Director: Jules Dassin
- Staring: Richard Widmar, Gene Tierne, Googie Wither, Francis L. Sullivan
- Runtime: 101 min
- Color: Black and White
Short review (spoiler free)
Harry Fabian, an opportunist in the city of London, has an idea of setting up a wrestling promotion business when he happens to overhear an argument between a wrestler father and his son. However, his opportunist tendency may not keep him standing long for the game…
A fast-paced movie with full of twist and turn, but also not without emotion. This is an in-depth study into an overly optimistic man whose optimism and disorganized lifestyle pushes him into a corner. The movie’s multifaceted plot will surely keep you thinking both during the movie’s runtime and after the movie has finished.
Rating: Red/Red
Review (heavy spoiler)
Out of the three movies I’ve covered so far, Le Doulos has been the most plot-oriented and fast-paced movie, with so much twist and turn along the way. It does have the ability to keep the viewers at the edge of their seats.
However, Silien is a quite powerful character. The entire movie is mostly about him overpowering other characters in his way. The tension of the movie centers around figuring out what his next move will be, and what secret he is trying to hide. It is more of a mental exercise and less of an emotional roller coaster.
Today, I want to analyze a movie that is a total opposite to Le Doulos. This movie doesn’t attempt to hide anything, yet still manages to create enough tension for the viewers. Instead of a powerful character who takes control of everything and everyone like Silien, we have a helpless protagonist being pushed around by people after people. This is now a real emotional roller coaster.
Being a highly emotional movie doesn’t mean Night and the City is a slow movie. Indeed, there is still just as much going on in this movie as in Le Doulos. Right off the bat, the viewers are treated with a scene of a chase between two men, signaling what kind of movie the viewers should expect to see.
No word spoken. Just a man running away in the dark street
and another man (not totally shown) running behind him. The chased man runs
into a door and the other man (whose shadow is now visible) looks confused as
to where he has gone to.
Part 1: A Chance of a Lifetime!
A day in a life of a loser
We then get to see the chased man’s face, and his girlfriend. Turns out, the man runs into his home, or more precisely, a cheap apartment that doesn’t look at all like his intended permanent resident. And he has also been away for three days straight.
The man’s name is Harry Fabian (Richard Widmar). What he does for a living, nobody knows. We are shown later that he works in a night club called The Silver Fox, but he is better known in the entire city of London as a “hustler”. But even without knowing that, we can already get a gleam at his life from this first scene, as he told Mary, his girlfriend (Gene Tierne), about the reason why he was gone.
He had a plan to mass-produce that tiny exploding cube,
which supposedly was a portable alternative for petrol. But he lacked money to
start his business, resulting in a god-know-what string of event that led to
him being chased; and now he wants Mary to give him £300 so that he could go on
with the business and settle score with the man who chased him.
It sounds like a rough business endeavor, with a great idea behind it. Only that this is the nth idea that Harry has thought of. And everyone can see that this idea is failing too, despite his insistence that he is making it.
Mary also has in her possession a fair amount of money, which she sets aside for the day Harry finally stops running around; but Harry has been eyeing the money since he started being a “hustler”, to fund his vain ideas. As much as she loves Harry, she is quite protective of the money. The money is also her dream, a dream of a small, grounded family, a dream that seems so far, far away…
We also learn that Harry and Mary are both short of money, probably as a result of Harry’s reckless lifestyle. Mary goes upstairs to borrow money from a man called Adam. Like Harry, Adam is full of ideas and is willing to try them, but he always makes sure his ideas are tangible. Adam serves as the total opposite of Harry, from his down-to-earth attitude about life to his contempt toward Harry. Adam also shows a genuine concern for Mary, unlike the seemingly egocentric attitude of Harry.
Harry and Mary then get ready to go to The Silver Fox
for work. And that wraps up a typical day in the life of the couple. Yes, that
has to be a typical day of theirs, because throughout the sequence, no one ever
acts surprised or shocked. And neither of them are totally happy. Everyday
Harry thinks of an idea for a business, runs to get help, gets chased and goes
back to Mary while she preaches to him about how his idea is wrong. Right off
the bat we can see a life that is going nowhere. Both Harry and Mary want a way
out, but neither knows how.
Harry goes to work
Harry goes to The Silver Fox. He is not working on that day. Instead, it is the day he gets paid.
We are briefly introduced to the people inside The Silver Fox. There’s Phil Nosseross (Francis L. Sullivan), the boss of the night club; and there’s Helen (Googie Wither), his old but pretty-looking wife. Phil also knows a lot about Harry’s antics, and knows about his recent 3-day absence. Phil, of course, doesn’t take Harry’s ambition seriously, given how many times Harry fails. He jokingly calls Harry a narcissist for thinking he can amount to something with all of his antics.
This, once again, highlights how unhappy Harry is. Back at
the home, Harry keeps talking about how he wants to be “somebody”, how he wants
to be respected. And now someone is telling him right in his face that he is a
pathetic narcissist. Harry takes the money from Phil and walks away angrily.
And again, no one acts surprised in that scene. It is part
of Harry’s daily life too.
After receiving the money, Harry is now seen standing in front of a bar. He sees a bunch of rich-looking men walk into the bar and gets an idea. And this is when the viewers get to see how Harry carries out his “ideas”.
Despite being essentially considered a loser, Harry has
surprisingly plenty of “friends”. We will get to see all of his friends later
on. Right now we are shown the first friend, the cab driver for the rich men.
Harry pays the cab driver and is told that the men come from Chicago and are
expecting a letter from someone named Lamont.
Harry walks toward the men, pretends that he finds a wallet to get the men’s attraction, then tries to mention the name and location he was tipped off earlier to gain a reaction from them. And he hits the jackpot. They are immediately pleased that someone knows such an intimate information. Harry then lures the men to The Silver Fox, so that they can stay for the night while waiting for Lamont. Everyone walks out happily, and Harry moves on to seek out another “business”.
This encounter will never be mentioned again, but it gives
us a head start of how Harry goes around his “business”. He charms people with
his lies and affectionate impression. He also employs the help of whoever of
his “friends” is present. And when things go well, it almost looks like he is a
powerful host running a one-man show. He essentially combines everything he has
to cook up a great scheme. This attitude is going to be a recurring theme
throughout the movie.
We then see Harry walks into a fight club. He holds the same wallet he uses with the three men and asks a random spectator the same question, revealing that his job at The Silver Fox is to attract people to the club. Just before he gets kicked out by someone who recognizes him, the crowd is distracted by the sight of an old man.
The old man is Gregorius the Great, an old ex- wrestler. He
is in the club to watch a wrestling match arranged by his son Kristo, and he is
disappointed that the match doesn’t have the Greco-Roman spirit of his time.
Harry overhears the argument and suddenly think of… an idea.
The big startup (and other stories)
Outside the club, Harry runs toward the wrestling father-and-son
and starts spilling out how much he admires Gregorius and his past achievement,
despite having no prior knowledge of Gregorius. He attempts to make Gregorius
think he is on his side, faking a contempt over the last boxing match and a
nostalgia for Greco-Roman wrestling spirit. Soon, he wins Gregorius’s trust.
The old man introduces Harry to Kristo, and Harry attempts to bond more with
them by inviting them for a drink. So far, so good.
The movie then switches back to The Silver Fox in an
attempt to showcase more about Phil and Helen.
Phil is quite content with his life. He has money and a wife to care for. In contract, Helen is deeply unsatisfied with the marriage. She feels trapped with him always by her side; and most of all, she wants more money. She thinks Phil is too stinky to her, and uses the five-pound bank note as the justification. She is quickly calmed down though, when Phil shows her a new fur coat he just bought for her.
Just then, the overexcited Harry runs into the room and
announces to his bosses about his new success with Gregorius. Harry is now
dreaming of opening a wrestling promotion business now that he has connection
with Gregorius.
And of course, he needs some money for the business.
Gregorius is a famous wrestler, so of course at first sight
no one is convinced that Harry is able to stack up with him, let alone capable
of maintaining a business with him. That, and the history of Harry’s past
failure, is in no way convincing to anyone. Coupled with the fact that Harry
wants money from Phil, Harry is making himself look like he will get away with
the money, and that is a scam, not a business
Phil rolled on his chair and laughs, challenging Harry to make £200 out of his “business” before he hands down any money. The puckered-face Harry screams that he will get even more of that money for Phil. Yeah, £200 in just one day!
And how does he go about that?
By… asking other people to donate to him.
Harry starts to reach out to his “friends”, probably telling them the same thing he says to Phil. None of his friends comply. Like Phil, they all think the plan is too out-of-this-world. And one look at their appearance tell us that they are all living in the dark corners of London in poverty. If a rich man like Phil is reluctant to pour money on Harry’s business, how could those poor people risk their saving for him?
 |
| This old guy even advises Harry to find a decent job. |
And while Harry digs around the city for money, Mary sits
there, waiting for him.
She meets Adam at the backdoor of The Silver Fox.
Adam has been waiting for 2 hours for her so that he can take her home. Adam
seems to have predicted that Harry has gone away for another get-rich scheme
again. He tells Mary to stop waiting for Harry and go home, wondering what is
the point of putting up with Harry’s constant antics.
And in the face of criticism against Harry, even from someone who cares for her, Mary tries to defend Harry…
…shortly before breaking down and admitting that Harry isn’t
waiting for her.
Mary is clearly conflicted at what to think of Harry. She
could very much be sick of Harry’s antics by now. Indeed, everyone is sick of
his antics. Even his friends advise him to find a stable job when he asks for
their money. But unlike Adam and the friends, Mary believes Harry isn’t doing
all of this out of pure ego. She believes he is trying to find a way to bring
fortune to both him and her. According to her, he has a long history of being
at the receiving end of the stick and now he is working as hard as he can to
gain all the fame and fortune he thinks he deserves.
Indeed, Mary could leave Harry very easily if she wanted to. She has been waiting for Harry to come back to his sense to no avail. She has another man who truly takes time to care for her. And yet she chooses to hold on to Harry, to the bitter end.
But that night, as she stands there with Adam, she doesn’t seem as certain anymore. She sounds very forced when she defends Harry, spilling as much information about Harry’s past as possible as if she is trying to convince herself along with Adam. Deep down, she may want a change too.
A new spark of hope?
The movies then cuts back to Harry, who has now exhausted all of his connection. Harry seems to have accept his defeat, he can’t raise enough money to convince Phil.
And just when he is about to give up, he sees…
Helen approaches Harry and gives him £200, so that he can pretend to Phil that he manages to raise the money.
But of course, this also comes with a condition. Turns out, Helen’s dissatisfaction with Phil (the thing we were shown earlier during the scene inside The Silver Fox) runs deeper than anyone could imagine. She wants more money for her lavish lifestyle, so she plans to open her own nightclub to be financially independent from Phil. So right now, she has tracked Harry down and orders him to find her a license for her future nightclub, for the price of his £200.
This is extremely materialistic and manipulative of her;
even a loser like Harry is disgusted. Harry knows he is being taken control,
which goes against his goal of being “respected”. But right no Harry is in no
position to choose, and he has to give in to the offer. The two agree on a
plan.
But they both don’t take into account some… inconveniences.
While Helen is in the bar with Harry, Phil is approached by two men who claims to be personal assistants of Kristo. The two tells Phil to warn Harry to stop the promotion “business”, as Kristo has found out about Harry’s reputation. They even give Phil their business card so that he can contact them.
And also, Phil happens to eye drop on Helen and Harry discussing what to do outside the club.
Helen enters the room, unaware of the fact that Phil has seen her with Harry. Phil is about to try to warn her about going with Harry when Harry comes into the room, with the £200 he promised Phil.
It is uncertain whether Phil knows the full story by now, but he clearly can guess Harry is trying to take Helen away from him. That will never sit well with him.
So, Phil has a plan.
Phil has all the facts he needs to know. Kristo doesn’t like
Harry working with Gregorius, Harry and Helen is having an affair, Helen uses
her own money to trick Phil. The only logical thing for Phi to do is to get
risk of Harry, fast. He “agree” to back Harry with his plan for the wrestling
promotion business, with one condition that Harry keeps quiet about Phil’s
involvement. A chance in a lifetime for Harry, how could he refuse?
Yet another manipulative plan set up for Harry.
Harry has no idea what he is walking into.
And he moves forward with a big smile.
