Well this comes hot on the heels of just having watched Night and the City again, a classic film noir if ever there was one; yet if you watch the interview with Jules Dassin (made many years later) he claims that he didn't know what film noir was at the time. Which is reasonable, actually. He was an American producer; he'd been blacklisted, which led to his exodus to Europe and let's face it, Night and the City was only made in 1950; film noir had only been around as a pretty experimental form for a couple of years. And it's rather like a verb that takes a mood rather than a specific tense; film noir isn't ever actually classified as a genre. But I think when we see it, we know what it is.
It's amazing though that Dassin didn't know what he was doing whilst he was actually doing it, and making one of the best films of all time. There are RW films such as Kiss of Death (obviously), Street with no Name and Roadhouse but also others, often featuring old friends, such as Boomerang and Where the Sidewalk Ends.
It really doesn't matter that these films are in black and white. It really doesn't matter that they were made a whole generation ago. (Or even more. For me - 1950 - my grandparents might have gone to see this). Let's face it, we all have our favourite era. I think this is mine. Paul Merton, the famous stand-up comedian, goes back even further; he prefers films from the silent era and even favours Laurel & Hardy (who I've never been able to like). Horses for courses, as they say.
It's interesting, that Dassin in his interview, says he'd liked to have made Hamlet with RW. That's probably my favourite Shakespeare play, but absolutely not one I'd see Richard Widmark in. No, for my preference, I would cast him as Iago (a part he played in radio) in Othello, and I would have loved to have seen him play the eponymous part in Richard III. But this is a digression, because Night and the City is a really great film and I'm really not surprised that Widmark lost so much weight doing it. Just look at the amount of running going on. What a seriously physical and very much underrated actor he was.
It's amazing though that Dassin didn't know what he was doing whilst he was actually doing it, and making one of the best films of all time. There are RW films such as Kiss of Death (obviously), Street with no Name and Roadhouse but also others, often featuring old friends, such as Boomerang and Where the Sidewalk Ends.
It really doesn't matter that these films are in black and white. It really doesn't matter that they were made a whole generation ago. (Or even more. For me - 1950 - my grandparents might have gone to see this). Let's face it, we all have our favourite era. I think this is mine. Paul Merton, the famous stand-up comedian, goes back even further; he prefers films from the silent era and even favours Laurel & Hardy (who I've never been able to like). Horses for courses, as they say.
It's interesting, that Dassin in his interview, says he'd liked to have made Hamlet with RW. That's probably my favourite Shakespeare play, but absolutely not one I'd see Richard Widmark in. No, for my preference, I would cast him as Iago (a part he played in radio) in Othello, and I would have loved to have seen him play the eponymous part in Richard III. But this is a digression, because Night and the City is a really great film and I'm really not surprised that Widmark lost so much weight doing it. Just look at the amount of running going on. What a seriously physical and very much underrated actor he was.
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