Jules Dassin and Richard Widmark, RIP

As mentioned previously, Richard Widmark died recently. A few days later, Jules Dassin died as well. Dassin was a key figure in the development of film noir, with The Naked City. Shortly after making Night and the City, he was accused by the House Un-American Activities Committee of being a communist. He refused to testify and was blackballed. This sent him to work in Europe, where he made Rififi, a prototype heist film. He also met and married Melina Mercouri, with whom he made Never on Sunday.

This weekend, we watched Night and the City, because it stars Richard Widmark directed by Jules Dassin. It could be argued that this is either one's masterpiece. Widmark plays a small-time hustler who thinks he can take over the wrestling racket in London because he is flattering a mob bosses father. Always on the dangerous edge of failing, Widmark runs through the alleys, ahead of the enforcers, just behind the sucker whose money he needs.

His girl is played by Gene Tierney, but the character actors get the best parts: Francis L. Sullivan as the Robert Morleyesque Phil Nosseross; Stanislaus Zbyszko as the old Greek wrestling coach with one more fight left in him; Mike Mazurki as crooked wrestler "The Strangler"; and especially Googie Withers as Nosseross' mercenary wife. She has a loverly Marie Windsor by way of Felicity Kendall style.

The real stars are Richard Widmark, who reeks of desperation, and London, the pitiless city.