Night and the City

+ intro by Josephine Botting, BFI National Archive curator

Post-war London meets American film noir in this celebrated work by Hollywood blacklisted filmmaker Jules Dassin.

  • Director

    Jules Dassin

  • With

    Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney, Googie Withers

  • UK 1950. 95min

  • Digital 4K (restoration)

  • Certificate

    12A

Dassin’s thriller follows Widmark’s Harry, an American hustler living in London and chasing easy money. By contrast, his girlfriend Mary wants him to settle down. Dassin, who was in the process of being blacklisted in Hollywood – the result of Communist witch-hunts – shoots on location in the city, creating a vividly atmospheric portrait of the dark underbelly of post-war London. It’s one of several films that Tierney made in the UK.

This is the American version of the film.

See other screenings of Night and the City.