Film

Night and the City

Other titles called Night and the City: the 1950 film.

A desperate New York lawyer claws for respectability by muscling into professional boxing, and immediately hits every possible way a person can fail. De Niro's perpetual scheming collides with a city that runs on different rules than he understands. It's a film about hunger—the kind that won't let you quit even when quitting might save your life.

TMDb rating2.9

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like tragicomic hustlers chasing a big score through a city's shady underside, where De Niro's jittery charm does most of the work.

Skip it if you want a clean, fast crime caper, since this one is more sweaty and seedy than sleek, and its hustler is grimly hard to root for.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a slow-building 105 minutes, where the mood is murky and the schemes pile up, so give it steady attention rather than background noise.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Raging Bull1980

De Niro's most famous collaboration with Scorsese, another film about a man whose appetites destroy him. This is the source material for understanding what De Niro does with self-sabotage and violence.

But Black and white, deliberately difficult, three hours long, and built to be watched in a specific emotional state rather than casually enjoyed.

Raging Bull poster

The Hustler1961

Paul Newman as a pool shark climbing a ladder that keeps collapsing beneath him. Same moral geography—ambition in a world where the house always wins, told with noir fatalism and genuine affection for its hustlers.

But It's a black-and-white drama about a niche sport, and the pacing belongs to an era that assumes you'll sit still and pay attention.

The Hustler poster

After Hours1985

Scorsese's fever dream of New York as a labyrinth where every decision makes things worse. De Niro's 1992 film shares that sense of a city working against your schemes with casual, almost comic cruelty.

But It veers into surrealism and absurdism; some find that liberating, others feel it abandons narrative stakes.

After Hours poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Night and the City

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

American Gangster2007

De Niro plays a version of his *Night and the City* character who actually has the power and intelligence to execute his schemes. It's the dark mirror, the road not taken.

De Niro plays a Harlem drug lord opposite Denzel Washington's cop—but here, De Niro is the apex predator, the one who actually wins. Watch this to see the inverse of his *Night and the City* desperation: what happens when you're too smart and too ruthless to fail.

But Three and a half hours, and the second half loses focus as it bifurcates between two protagonists; some find that diffusion disappointing.

American Gangster poster
More like this (8)

American Hustle2013

A con man and a femme fatale run elaborate schemes while the ground shifts. It has the same DNA—predatory hustling, allies who aren't really allies, the seductive fantasy of getting away with it.

But Stylish to the point of distraction; plot complexity sometimes outpaces emotional stakes, which some viewers find exhausting.

American Hustle poster

Miller's Crossing1990

Prohibition-era gangsters and small-time operators navigating an economy of violence and betrayal. The Coen Brothers capture that same claustrophobic scramble for status in a world with no real rules.

But Dense dialogue, period slang, and deliberately artificial tone—you have to surrender to its register or it feels mannered and cold.

Miller's Crossing poster

GoodFellas1990

The most exhilarating film about why men throw their lives away for respect and money. De Niro's here too, but *Night and the City* is what happens when the fantasy doesn't work.

But Violent, morally corrosive, and so entertaining it can feel like a celebration rather than a cautionary tale, which bothers some people.

GoodFellas poster

L.A. Confidential1997

Corruption, ambition, and cops stepping outside the law because the system demands it. Same dark logic—you're trading your soul for inches of power in a rigged game.

But 1950s Los Angeles noir can feel like a costume, and the plot mechanics occasionally overshadow character.

L.A. Confidential poster

The Wolf of Wall Street2013

DiCaprio as a man convinced his own hunger is destiny, surrounded by enablers and violence and the promise that the next score will finally satisfy him. It's the white-collar spiritual cousin to *Night and the City*.

But Three hours, relentless excess, and some find the film's energy indistinguishable from its protagonist's—it doesn't judge him, it dances with him.

The Wolf of Wall Street poster

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang2005

A small-time crook and a private investigator stumble through Los Angeles trying not to die. Lean, funny, full of double-crosses, and interested in how people talk themselves into the worst decisions.

But Black comedy tone might feel incongruous if you're looking for noir gravity; deliberately artificial in how it addresses the audience.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang poster

Stalker1979

Both films are about men whose appetite for the unreachable thing destroys them. One is a New York hustler; one is a philosophical meditation. Same void, different languages.

A man guides two others through a mysterious zone toward a room that grants wishes. Tarkovsky's masterpiece is built on the same hunger that devours De Niro's lawyer—the obsession with the next thing, the belief that paradise is always three steps away.

But Soviet science fiction, 160 minutes, almost no conventional plot, and long meditative takes. It's a film for a specific kind of patience and temperament.

Stalker poster

Killer Joe2012

Both are films about trying to game a system that has infinite advantages over you. The violence is not the point—the humiliation is.

Matthew McConaughey as a corrupt detective hired to kill someone, working a Texas family of small-time grifters toward disaster. Brutal, darkly funny, and built on the same principle: desperation makes people stupid, and stupid people die.

But Sexually violent, genuinely grotesque at moments, and the final scene will stay with you in ways you might not want. It's not squeamish entertainment.

Killer Joe poster

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