Tonight's Saturday Night Special comes with a message.....as Frank Zappa would say many years later, "BE A JERK! GO TO WORK," but at least you might stay alive!
The title "Night And The City" is very awkward to me, I think the German title is much more descriptive, "Die Ratte Von Soho," or as translated...
"The Rat Of Soho!"
It's 1950 London, and everybody's got a hustle going! This is the story of just one of the losers, and all the trouble and pain he causes for a whole bunch of other people because of it.
Here's a portrait of the happy/unhappy couple of Harry and Mary, but that was all in the distant past!
Richard (Kiss Of Death, Madigan) Widmark is Harry, and gorgeous Gene (Heaven Can Wait) Tierney is Mary!
Now all the dirty rat Harry can think about is where his next buck is coming from because he's nothing but a cheap hustler and a two bit con man! Mary, on the other hand continues to love him as she always has.
Mary works at a club called The Silver Fox where the girls dance and drink with the guys for a price. Harry goes out and finds suckers like these tourists to send her way!
After these guys got dropped off, Harry asked the cabbie what the guys were talking about on the way there, and then he approaches them like an old friend of a friend.
It was seventy years ago, and this guy was running a business where he outfits people and sends them out on the street to beg. He's like a beggar pimp!
Georgette Lizette Withers aka Googie Withers is Helen Nosseross. She ends up to her neck in trouble in no time at all! Googie was in classics like "The Lady Vanishes," and "Haunted Honeymoon." Googie was born in India, and was given her nickname Googie as a child by her nanny.
"Night And The City" is a must see for any diehard wrasslin' fan! Harry's next big scam is to become a wrestling promoter in Soho. He can't wait to see his name in lights!
Just another day in the gym!
Real life big-time wrassler Stanislaus Zbyszko was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2003. The guy in the back is Ken Richmond who won a bronze medal in wrestling at the Olympics in 1952. These guys are more legitimate than professional wrestling itself!
One of our favourite guys, Big Mike Mazurski is in there too, as
THE STRANGLER!
From Dick Tracy's Splitface to Batman's Allegro, Mike was always entertaining!
Iron Mike Mazurski was also a professional wrestler, and founded the "Cauliflower Club" in Los Angeles in the 60's to benefit all members of the boxing and wrestling community.
Harry is so proud of himself, but just you wait.......
The owner of the Silver Fox, Helen's husband, is played by Francis L. (Strange Wives, Cheating Cheaters, Chu-Chin-Chow) Sullivan. So his last name is Nosseros, if him and Helen ever had sex and had a little boy they could have called him Rye Nosseros.
This impomptu match breaks out between The Great Gregorius and The Strangler, and it goes on for quite a while!
It actually wore me out just watching it!!
Gregorius comes out the victor by putting a backbreaker on The Strangler, but at his age, the fight takes it's toll on him!
Gregorius leaves with his son, and keeps telling his son to close the window because he's cold, but the window isn't open!
The son's name is Kristo, and he's the biggest wrestling promoter in town, and now he's pissed off, and now Harry is in over his head. Kristo was played by none other than Herbert (Phantom Of The Opera) Lom. Unbelievably, Herbert Lom was on the silver screen from 1937 until 1993!
Here's the big and the small of it, Mike Mazurki and Chunky Pattison!
I seriously thought about doing this with only shots on stairs, or in hallways, and alleys, because there's that many of them!
Harry is now a lost and broken man. There's no place to run and no place to hide. All he can do is disappear, but not the way he would like to!
Just for fun I started compiling a list of one word name titles for movies, and it's surprising how many of them would have been a good fit for this film too, like BAFFLED, BESERK, CORRUPTION, FRENZY, IMPACT, LURED, NIGHTMARE, OUTRAGE, REPULSION, SQUIRM, and TRAUMA, just to name a few! SCREWED would have been a good one too. It all works!
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