Night And The City

Jules Dassin's Night And The City (1950) is a bona fide film noir classic. I think there are several elements that contribute to this. I found the location shooting in London brilliant-there's really a lot of great cinematography in this film. It seems Dassin was an innovator of this especially in Naked City where he uses documentary-like footage in that film. There are lots of great underworld film types and characters like Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark) and Helen Nosseross (Googie Withers) are classic noir types who are flawed, doomed for failure, and self-involved. There are several standout performances and the two a fore mention are among the best performances, but most of the  actors who were cast in London rather than Hollywood give solid performances. The commentary to the Criterion Edition of the film by film scholar Glenn Erickson is interesting in how he discusses the differences between the American cut (Dassin's preferred choice), the English released version, and the novel that served as the source material (incidentally, which Dassin didn't read until after filming). It seems much of the source material was toned down from the novel, but it was still more seedy and pessimistic than was usually allowed in films at that time. This might have had something to do with Dassin being caught up in the HUAC's witch hunt for artists with socialist tendencies in the late 40s. It is an entertaining and well made film full of nuanced performances and interesting cinematography. The Criterion edition special features includes: an essay by film scholar Paul Arthur, a video interview with Dassin, excerpts from a 1972 French interview with Dassin, and a comparison of the two scores released for the British and American releases of the film.