Night and the City

Jules Dassin created this interesting little piece of film noir a few years before he made Rififi. Richard Widmark is at the top of his game playing a two-bit con man that's more clever and probably more likeable than your average hustler. Though not everyone thinks he's very likeable, because there seems to be a significant portion of the London underworld that wants him dead. It's amusing to watch Widmark playing all the angles. He's one of those guys who's got a surefire idea that'll make them all rich. It can't lose. One of them involves the fading arena of Greek-style wrestling. There's a wrestling match in the film between an aging wrestler and one of the pawn's of the "bad guy's", that's painfully hard to watch -- it feels more brutal than it really is. Also, the ending is just excellent, it's noir at its finest.