Night and the City

Night and the City (1950) is a British noir directed by Jules Dassin that you can watch online on iFILM. Richard Widmark plays Harry Fabian, a small-time London hustler whose get-rich schemes collapse faster than he can invent them — yet he keeps inventing them.

His latest angle: cozy up to legendary Greco-Roman wrestler Gregorius and build a rival wrestling promotion behind the back of Gregorius's son Kristo, who controls every arena in the city. It's a dangerous game. Dassin shot on the actual streets of postwar London at night, and cinematographer Max Greene made the city feel like a trap slowly closing. Gene Tierney plays Harry's girlfriend Mary, watching yet another doomed scheme with the hollow patience of someone who's heard all the promises before.

Dassin was working in Europe under the pressure of the Hollywood blacklist when he made this, and something of that desperation bleeds into Harry's relentless scrambling — a man who can't stop reaching for a life that keeps receding. It's a cold film, and a precise one. Stream Night and the City (1950) online on iFILM.