Night and the City [Blu-ray]

Criterion has another beautiful Blu-ray release with great picture (a 4K restoration), sound and of course the Criterion "supplements" (including the 101 minute British release with different score). Their DVDs are usually excellent and their BDs even better. Well worth the money in quality.The picture is another Jules Dassin success, wonderful direction with fantastic cinematography by Mutz Greenbaum (Max Greene). Great editing considering Dassin was blacklisted and couldn't supervise it. The story moves at a good clip and has twists and turns and a dramatic ending.Richard Widmark is superb as Harry Fabian. If you only think of him as Tommy Udo (in Kiss of Death) you owe it to yourself to see this film. He plays a two bit hustler who is his own worst enemy, with dreams of being "somebody" and a life of "ease and plenty", but all his schemes lead nowhere and leave him broke. WIdmark portrays him so well you actually believe that he believes in his hustles.Supporting players are also good, Gene Tierney as his girlfriend that loves him too much, Googie Withers as his "bosses" wife with eyes for Harry and Francis L. Sullivan as the husband/boss who has it in for Harry.Harry finally hits on something that will give him what he wants but he has to do some hustling to get the money to finance it. When one thing after another starts to go wrong (with the help of the boss that hates him) he finally hustles himself into a corner and cannot even turn to his underworld proteges for help as he has a price on his head that is too big for them to not turn on him, so he goes on the run with nowhere to hide until the end.

Because Amazon has a very restrictive attitude with regards to very excessive sexual references that cannot appear in a Blu-ray Review, especially in the 21st century and on top of all that, again any excessive swear words cannot also appear in a Blu-ray Review. So I have decided to remove my Blu-ray Review of NIGHT AND THE CITY [1950 / 2015] [The Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray] and will now appear in my professional Google Chrome web site from February 2019 onwards. Another restrictive policy Amazon has since 2018, is that if you buy a Blu-ray Titles say in America, you can only have that Blu-ray Review appear, whereas before they put a stop to that practice, I could post my Blu-ray via Amazon in any other country where you can but Blu-ray Titles from Amazon, whereas with my web site I have no restrictions, so see you there. Andrew C. Miller

Once again, Criterion disappoints. Their blu ray versions are a hit or miss proposition. After playing the film itself, I started in on the special features and encountered the following message on the TV screen: MISMATCH BETWEEN DISC AND PLAYER REGION CODES. SEE DISC PACKAGING FOR DETAILS. The disc is now completely unwatchable and, of course, there is nothing in the packaging that addresses this problem. I call that a scam. I should note the dvd player is from Sony and is brand new. I call this another scam from Criterion. Buyer beware.

When "Night and the City"(1950) first opens, viewers see Harry Fabian(Richard Widmark) running through the dark streets of London and are made instantly aware that he's in great danger. The film ends the same way. What happens in-between is one of the most exciting and suspenseful film noir stories of all time and even more so now that it is finally on Blu-ray. Criterion had previously released "Night and the City" on standard DVD about ten years ago but as good as that DVD was at the time, it pales in comparison to this new Blu-ray. According to the liner notes on the enclosed booklet: "This new digital transfer was created in 4K resolution from the 35 mm original camera negative" and Criterion has given the film a high bitrate(27.49). The results are simply astonishing and one of the best Blu-ray releases of the year. "Night and the City" joins two other film noir classics that Criterion as released this year, "Ride the Pink Horse"(1947) and "The Killers"(1946) which should make viewers and film noirs fans alike want to add this to their collections. Superbly directed by Jules Dassin and beautifully photographed by cinematographer Max Greene, London's underbelly of bleakness,sinister doings and unsympathetic characters are brought front and center under Greene's excellent black and white cinematography. Photographed from impossible angles with sinister shadows in nearly every scene, the bleakness and desperation of the characters makes them appear all the more real. The brightness of the exterior scenes is in stark contrast with the dark and forbidding interior scenes with set decorations, costumes and props being especially vivid now on Blu-ray. Filmed entirely on the streets of London(with interior at Pinewood Studios), "Night and the City" has star Richard Widmark as a London hustler willing to do anything to "be somebody". His unsympathetic portrayal is one of the best of his long career and he gets great support from Gene Tierney, Googie Withers, Francis L. Sullivan, Hugh Marlowe, Mike Mazurki and wrestling great Stanislaus Zbyszko. The Audio has been improved also. Again from the liner notes: "The original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the 35 mm magnetic track. Clicks, thumps, hiss, hum, and crackle were manually removed." Overall, this is another superb Blu-ray presentation from Criterion. "Night and the City" is 95 minutes(Aspect Ratio: 1.33.1) and only contains the following subtitle: English SDH. Special features include the complete 101 minute British version of the film("not" restored), audio commentary by film scholar Glenn Erickson, an interviews with director Jules Dassin from 1972 and 2005, comparison of the music scores for the British and American versions of the film and the theatrical trailer. Criterion continues to give film collectors the best versions of classic films and their new Blu-ray of "Night and the City" comes very highly recommended.

The BFI's blu-ray of Night and The City turned out a fantastic blind-buy. The plot follows a small-time hustler Harry Fabian who tricks an honourable Greco-Roman wrestler and his son into doing a public match for him and cons several other people into providing the means to host the event, but his machinations spiral out of control and lead to his (and several others') destruction. The pace is relentless and the atmosphere poisonously bleak. Richard Widmark in the lead is so brilliant he seems to have been born to do noir cinema (also see him in Sam Fuller's Pickup on South Street). His character runs on similar lines as Tony Curtis' in 1957's Sweet Smell of Success - he's a thoroughly unscrupulous character that will stop at nothing and nobody to achieve his ends. The supporting cast is also very strong, including Francis Sullivan as the club owner who funds Fabian with a twisted interest, and Stanislaus Zbyszko (who used to be a pro wrestler) as the proud wrestling legend.The blu-ray features both British and American versions of the film as separate encodes. The US version comes off a new 4K restoration and looks expectedly marvellous with wonderful shadow-draped visuals and virtually damage-free. The LPCM audio is strong with crisp dialog and the jazzy score by Frank Waxman. I haven't seen the Brit version (which has different scenes and a different score). Supplements include separate commentaries for each version, some additional featurettes (the filmed conversation with Richard Widmark shows him to be a lovely person with a solid memory for details, a real talent for telling anecdotes and a gut busting sense of humor) and a booklet - in short, a packed to the rafters affair, highly recommended!

Richard Widmark gives an incredible performance as Spiv Harry Fabian, a man who lives on the "edge" he tries to build a life for himself and his ever loyal girlfriend, played by Gene Tierney, by getting involved in the seedy underbelly of the London Wrestling rackets. He falls foul of gangster Herbert Lom, but Harry can't outrun his fateThe film transfer is perfect and aspect ratio is near perfect, the set features a beautifully written booklet that is a delight to read and own.

I actually saw the remake first and I don't remember being particularly impressed. This is perhaps my favourite film by Dassin but I've only seen Rififi, Thieves Highway & Brute Force. The only negative I can think of is the score being occasionally obtrusive. Great locations, supporting cast and a reminder of how good Widmark was. Highly recommended and actually much better than I expected, it was not well thought of on its initial release. Extras on the standard bfi dvd, a 2005 interview with Dassin, commentary by Paul Duncan & comparison of US & UK versions, also comes with a nice booklet.

BFI edition boxset is the one to own for fans. Watch out, Criterion. The old supplements and presentation have fallen behind. Buy both BFI and Criterion for more backstage information if you haven't watched this noir classic, IMO.

Until this came up as a recommendation for film noir, I had neither seen nor heard of this film. I am so glad I bought it and this movie truly is one the noir greats. Set in post war London, the main character is a 2 bit hustler with grand ideas which never seem to work out, and indeed all of the characters are hustlers, con artists and underworld figures of one sort or another, and as with most noir films most of the action takes place at night or in dingy nightclubs and darkened rooms. The storyline of how everyone is hustling everyone else is very engaging and holds the audience's attention, as well as all the subtle sub text which is sadly missing from films today. It is hard to believe that a film made more than 60 years ago could hold an audience's attention so well, but it does.Excellent example of the film noir genre and a great movie in it's own right. Highly recommended. The product itself was sharp with good sound quality.