Night and the City – Jules Dassin

Harry is an artist without an art …, that is something that could make a man very unhappy, …, groping for the right level, the means with which to express himself.

The best examples of film noir (Double Indemnity, The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon) rarely rely on the strength of their characters to achieve excellence. They succeed by bringing out the palpable fear in the dark corners of the urban landscape and by tying together these shadowy images into a taut narrative. Jules Dassin’s Night and the City achieves all of this but what separates it from the pack are the characters that populate the screen.

Unlike the glum, angsty but essentially morally upright protagonists (Sam Spade in the Maltese Falcon) we have Harry Fabian, a rogue, who is at once likeable and detestable. He is smart, ambitious and often “works as hard as 10 men”. But he is also an escapist, preferring to fly his way to the top rather than working through the trenches. The viewer constantly on an emotional tenterhook: is Harry to be pitied as a victim of circumstance or is his fate a result of his own misdemenours meriting no sympathy? Similarly, the archtypical vamp, Helen, is no longer a purely scheming woman; she just wants to scheme her way out of her suffering. And though she is indirectly responsible for the violent denouement, she cannot be squarely blamed.

While Night and the City breaks away from noir norms in characterization, it reinforces and enchances them in mis-en-scene and narrative style. Dassin films the alleys and streets of London at their shadowy best. In closeups, his camera exquisitely captures the expression of the most primeval of human instincts – the fight to survive. And though the narrative has its foggy bylanes, they all meet together in the end for the almost apocaplyptic ending. For in the world created by Dassin, redemption is not an option.

Night and the City is a directorial masterpiece and perfect example of how to tell a story on screen. It’s greatest success is to induce in the viewer’s mind a dichotomy of emotions for the onscreen characters drawing them further into the movie. A must watch for any serious movie buff.