Review of Night and the City (1950) by John E — 09 Jun 2011
The best noirs are those that are forcefully grim and oppressive, with plots that move with an ineluctable, Shakespearean, merciless turn of Fortune's wheel. This noir ranks up there among the best because its characters are beautifully actualized and they are always ill at ease.
They are constantly fluid, pathetically and ceaselessly trying to better themselves (financially of course) and have neither an empathic nor altruistic bone in their whole body. The constant manipulations, perfidy and scheming that crisscrosses the movie's serpentine plot keep the proceedings tightly wound.
Combined with Widmark's enervated little weasel of a character, the movie has all it needs to place it up there in the pantheon of great noir. Widmark's can-do attitude, his weak and sad attempts to try and get somewhere in the criminal underworld is poignant in a sleazy sort of way.
The pictorial representation of London beautifully enhances the seediness of its underbelly in a manner reminiscent of Dickens' description of the great city's less attractive side. Night and the City is phenomenal, archetypal and above all brilliant.
Go see it! Now!
This review of Night and the City (1950) was written by John E on 09 Jun 2011.
Night and the City has generally received very positive reviews.
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