NIGHT AND THE CITY (1950) Noir place to hide

Film noir is often about guys who are dead – they just don’t know it yet. Take Hary Fabian, the poor doomed schnook in Jules Dassin’s classic. Fabian, memorably played by Richard Widmark, is an two-bit hustler filled with big ambitions but empty of what it takes to achieve them. One day he meets a famous old Greco-Roman wrestler and dreams up a get-rich-and-famous scheme to open his own gym and secure a title match between his old-school wrestler and the ranking champ, "The Strangler" (Mike Mazurki). But after conning everyone around him including the woman who adores him (Gene Tierney) and then watching his Grand Plan crumble piece by piece, Fabian admits in a rare moment of introspection to "running all my life" and discovers there's no outrunning Fate, Karma and The Strangler. Film noir as good as it gets.