Into the Night

In 1950, Jules Dassin directed Richard Widmark in Night and the City, a pitch-black film noir that really didn’t have any sympathetic characters. This was the only film on which the director and actor collaborated, but it’s been on my mind the past week — not only is it a near-flawless moral tale, but Widmark and Dassin both passed away this past March, within a week of each other. Both were in their mid-90s.

Their deaths have been eclipsed by that of well-known actor Charlton Heston in the news, but Widmark’s and Dassin’s contribution to film — and the art of storytelling — is immeasurable. Night and the City was the final film Dassin made in the United States before he was blacklisted during Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s communist witch hunt and exiled to France. He has a substantial list of directorial credits, from the better-than-average (Brute Force), to the excellent (the Naked City and Thieves’ Highway) to the iconic (Rififi, the blueprint for every single heist film since). Though not a household name, Dassin’s talent and cultural impact will resonate for years.

While rarely a leading man in big Hollywood pictures, Widmark had a great reputation amongst his peers. He was a versatile, complex actor, equally at home in westerns (How the West Was Won), in film noir (the incredible Panic in the Streets) or in romantic comedies (The Tunnel of Love). His turn as two-bit hustler Harry Fabian in Night and the City, though, is unnerving and claustrophobic — and arguably his best role in Dassin’s best film.

Many of Widmark’s and Dassin’s films are available on DVD. Check them out.

Jason Panella

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