NIGHT AND THE CITY (1992) *** Robert De Niro, Jessica Lange, Alan King, Cliff Gorman, Jack Warden, Barry Primus. Slice-of-low-life portrait remake of 1940 Richard Widmark flick casts De Niro as ambulance chasing attorney Harry Fabian trying to score big-time as a boxing promoter with the help of his lady love (Lange in an uncharacteristically unglamourous role) and the ex-fighter brother (Warden) of his chief nemesis (King in a humdinger of chilly malevolence as the corrupt boxing mogul). Feisty and surprisingly funny script courtesy of Richard Price (in a bit role as a doctor) has its moments of ugliness and sudden downshift into tragedy. De Niro, at times over-the-top, is the life-force to this otherwise entertaining melodrama.
Review of Night and the City
