Night and the City
directed by Jules Dassin,
written by Austin Dempster, William E. Watts and Jo Eisinger,
based on the novel by Gerald Kersh,
was released in the United States on June 9, 1950.
Music by Benjamin Frankel and Franz Waxman.
Cast:
Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney, Googie Withers, Hugh Marlowe, Francis L. Sullivan, Herbert Lom, Aubrey Dexter, Maureen Delany, Stanislaus Zbyszko, Mike Mazurki, Ada Reeve, Charles Farrell, Ken Richmond, Edward Chapman, James Hayter, Gibb McLaughlin, Dirk Bogarde.
Recommended reading:
Night And The City
by Gerald Kersh.
Published by London Books.
First published 1938.
ISBN-10: 0995721734
ISBN-13: 9780995721739
Description:
Harry Fabian is a
cockney wide boy trying to make it big in the Soho underworld of the 1930s. He
is a Flash Harry in an expensive suit, a chancer operating in a cosmopolitan
corner of the city where villains, spivs, prostitutes and strong-arm men
thrive. But his ambition and reckless nature are pushing him towards more and
more extreme acts - and a day of reckoning. Night And The City is
a classic work of social-realist fiction that captures the vibrant yet seedy
underbelly of London between the world wars. Its author Gerald Kersh was
high-profile, prolific and hugely popular at his peak, but would later drift
into hardship and obscurity. His writing is now being rediscovered. A maverick
character in his own right, Kersh's life was as colourful as those of his most
flamboyant creations. As well as a highly respected novel, Night And
The City was twice filmed - in 1950 and 1992 - and it is the first of
these adaptations that is today regarded as one of the best of the British
film-noir genre. Directed by Jules Dassin and starring Richard Widmark and
Googie Withers, it was shot in a post-war landscape heavy with menace and charm
- just like the book on which it was based.