Blu-ray, DVD Release: Night and the City (1950)

By
Laurence
– May 21, 2015Find Others: Blu-ray, DVD, Movie, New Release, NewsGet More: , , ,

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Aug. 4, 2015
Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion

Night and the City is a 1950 film noir of the first order, and one of director Jules Dassin’s (Rififi) crowning achievements.

Richard Widmark in Night and the City

Richard Widmark in Night and the City

Two-bit hustler Harry Fabian (Twilight’s Last Gleaming’s Richard Widmark) longs for a life of ease and plenty. Trailed by an inglorious history of go-nowhere schemes, he tries to hatch a lucrative plan with a famous wrestler. But there is no easy money in this underworld of shifting alliances, bottomless graft, and pummeled flesh—and Fabian soon learns the horrible price of his ambition.

Luminously shot in the streets of London while Hollywood blacklisters back home were closing in on Dassin, Night and the City also stars Gene Tierney (Leave Her to Heaven), Hugh Marlowe (All About Eve) and Herbert Lom (Spartacus).

Criterion’s Blu-ray and DVD editions of the crime classic contain the following:

  • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Alternate presentation of the 101-minute British version of the film
    • Audio commentary from 2005 with film scholar Glenn Erickson
    • Interview with director Jules Dassin from 2005
    • Excerpts from a 1972 television interview with Dassin
    • Comparison of the scores for the British and American versions of the film
    • Trailer
    • An essay by film scholar Paul Arthur

 

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About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.