Night and the City is a thrilling film noir, with an especially tense finale. All the main characters get what's coming to them in proper noir fashion. There were some sensationally powerful moments and some surprisingly emotional ones. The plot/content was perfectly, precisely, definitively noir and nothing else. It was mesmerizing to watch the world this man had worked to build through theft and deceit and sleaze slowly crumble around him. All the pieces literally fell into place to create one of the saddest noir endings I've seen.
It takes a little while to get into the rhythm of the piece. The cinematography was either out of place or just plain ugly the entire time, except for the extremely well-done chase at the end. The editing was also bizarre. The wrestling scene near the end, while gripping, was an example of poor cinematography and worse editing. The characters, while unique and well-formed when taken in the context of noir, are a little too unique for my tastes--it takes a while to get used to them. I especially couldn't stand the main character's laugh. The dialogue is bland except for two extremely well-done lines. Their rarity perhaps make them feel more precious and meaningful than they are. I forget one of them already, but here is the other.--You don't know what you're getting into.
--I know what I'm getting out of.
IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0042788/