The Soho Rat
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The Soho Rat |
| Original title | Night and the City |
| Country of production | Great Britain |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1950 |
| length | 92 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jules Dassin |
| script | Jo Eisinger |
| production |
Samuel G. Engel for 20th Century Fox |
| music |
Franz Waxman (US version) Benjamin Frankel (UK version) |
| camera | Max Greene |
| cut |
Nick DeMaggio Sidney Stone |
| occupation | |
| |
Night and the City (Original title: Night and the City ) is in black and white twisted film noir by Jules Dassin from the year 1950. The screenplay was based on the novel Night on the Town by British writer Gerald Kersh from the year 1938th
action
The American Harry Fabian, who lives in London, makes a living by luring rich US tourists to the shabby nightclub of his client Philip Nosseross, where they are gutted. He is always on the lookout for the big thing that enables him to live in wealth and abundance. However, Harry's grandiose plans usually turn out to be failures and he usually ends up with debts on his neck, which he then settles with money "borrowed" from his friend Mary.
One night Harry gets to know the famous former wrestler Gregorius and his protégé Nikolas. Gregorius would like to have Nikolas fight wrestling matches in the Greco-Roman style . Gregorius' son Kristo, an unscrupulous wrestling promoter, rejects this due to a lack of public interest. Harry sees his chance as the organizer of Nikolas' struggles to finally become financially independent. When Kristo learns about this, he lets Harry know that he is allowing him to stage Greco-Roman fights for his father's sake, but threatens to have Harry murdered if Harry should betray his father.
To get the necessary start-up capital for his plan, Harry asks the greasy Nosseross for help. Nosseross, who despises Fabian, refuses at first in a condescending manner, but ultimately agrees to steer in half of the required sum if Harry can find the other half. Harry then rattles countless acquaintances in vain. Finally, Nosseross' wife Helen offers Harry to give him the other half of the money if he can get her a nightclub license so she can finally leave her hated husband. Harry cheats on Helen with a fake license and shows up triumphantly at Nosseross with her money. As agreed, he hands him the other half of the capital, but realizes that Harry's share comes from his own wife.
Since Nosseross suspects that Harry is having an affair with Helen, he wants to destroy him. When he learns from Kristo that Harry has expressly only allowed fighting events in the Greco-Roman style, he sees his chance. He demands his money back from Harry unless Gregorius agrees to a more lucrative fight by Nikolas according to modern rules. The opponent had to be the "strangler", a public favorite and particularly brutal fighter whom Gregorius abhorred.
Through a cleverly engineered intrigue, Harry actually manages to get Gregorius' approval for this fight. But before this can take place, there is a fight between the fighting parties in Gregorius' training hall, in which Nikolas breaks his wrist. While Nikolas has to watch helplessly, the mad strangler in the ring pounces on old Gregorius. Gregorius manages to defeat the strangler in a long and nerve-wracking fight. As a result, however, he suffers a heart attack and dies shortly afterwards in the arms of his new son Kristo. Hateful he puts a bounty on the murder of the fugitive Harry in the London underworld.
In the meantime, Helen Nosseross has left her husband under abusive abuse. Shortly before their bar opens, however, it emerges that the license for this is a fake. The unscrupulous Helen ruefully tries to return to her husband, but learns that he has killed himself and bequeathed all of his possessions to a beggar.
Like a hunted deer, Harry flees through the London night, but has nowhere to find shelter. At dawn, Mary finally finds him hiding on a boat on the banks of the Thames . Harry realizes that he cannot escape, and he has one last brilliant idea: He walks towards Kristo on a Thames bridge and asks him to pay the offered reward to Mary. At that moment he is seized by the strangler that has emerged from behind a wall ledge, strangles him and throws his corpse into the Thames.
background
The film opened in US cinemas on June 9, 1950. It was released in German cinemas on September 4, 1951.
The Soho Rat was shot entirely in the UK, as director Jules Dassin was banned from his profession as one of the most prominent victims of the McCarthy-era communist hunt in the USA. Because he was denied access to the Hollywood studio premises of the 20th Century Fox production company , Dassin was unable to attend the post-production of the film in person. He therefore had to contribute his ideas regarding film editing and background music by telephone.
The version of the film shown in British cinemas was five minutes longer than the US version. It contained a more optimistic ending and was underlaid with a completely different film music. Director Dassin later stated that the US version corresponded much more to his ideas.
Under the title Night and the City , a remake was made in 1992 with Robert De Niro in the lead role.
criticism
"An exciting crime and milieu drama, interesting because of its careful drawing of characters and locations."
"His freedom of movement gives Jules Dassin's film noir a peculiarly modern, rough undertone that lifts it far beyond the filmmaking of his time."
" The Soho Rat is one of the toughest, darkest films ever made by a major Hollywood studio."
" The Soho Rat is perhaps the definitive film noir."
Web links
- Night and the City in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Alain Silver, Elizabeth Ward (Ed.): Film Noir. An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style, Third Edition. Overlook / Duckworth, New York / Woodstock / London 1992, ISBN 978-0-87951-479-2 , pp. 201-202.
- ↑ a b The Soho Rat in the Lexicon of International Films .
- ^ Geoff Mayer and Brian McDonnell: Encyclopedia of Film Noir , Greenwood Press, Westport 2007, ISBN 978-0-313-33306-4 , pp. 301-304.
- ↑ http://www.criterion.com/films/933-night-and-the-city (DVD with Dassin interview and a documentation about the different versions of the film).
- ↑ http://der-film-noir.de/v1/node/112
- ^ " Night and the City is one of the toughest, bleakest films ever produced by a major Hollywood studio." Geoff Mayer and Brian McDonnell: Encyclopedia of Film Noir , Greenwood Press, Westport 2007, ISBN 978-0-313-33306-4 , Pp. 301-304.
- ^ " Night and the City may well be the definitive film noir" Foster Hirsch: The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir , Da Capo Press, New York 2008, ISBN 978-0-306-81772-4 ; P. 128.