#sidney stone

[sesiondemadrugada]

The Heart of the Matter (George More O'Ferrall, 1953).

[gregorygalloway]

Night and the City premiered in New York City on 9 June 1950.

Based on Gerald Kersh’s 1938 novel (which director Jules Dassin admitted he never bothered to read), Jo Eisinger’s adaptation presents Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark) as more sympathetic than the novel, some of which Dassin rejected (changing the opening scene in Eisinger’s script).

Dassin was in the process of being blacklisted and producer Darryl Zanuck told the director to film the most expensive scenes first, to make it more difficult for the studio to remove him. Dassin was not allowed back on the studio lot to edit or oversee the musical score for the film (he communicated with editors Nick De Maggio and Sidney Stone and composer Franz Waxman by phone). After he was blacklisted, Dassin continued his career overseas.

The British version of the film is longer, has a more “upbeat” ending, and an entirely different musical score than the US version.

The film received mostly negative reviews (”little more than a melange of maggoty episodes having to do with the devious endeavors of a cheap London night-club tout to corner the wrestling racket“) and failed to find an audience at the box office, but its reputation began to improve in the 1960s, and Night and the City is now considered a classic film noir (”a work of emotional power and existential drama that stands as a paradigm of noir pathos and despair”).

[random-bookquotes]

Facebook, on the other hand, is a private investigator’s dream. A long time ago P.I.s like me would have to follow people around for hours to take pictures of what they did during their day. Now we just have to go to the internet because people post everything they’re doing, minute by minute. I mean, everything. What restaurant they’re eating at and what they’re eating there, the people around them in the grocery store, their brand-new car complete with license plate number, pictures of their new boyfriend, all of it. Right there for the picking.

K.J. Emrick, Cast the First Stone (Sidney Stone #1)

[random-bookquotes]

Here’s the thing about missing persons cases. Most people who go missing run away on their own, and don’t want to be found. All those posts about missing kids on Facebook are sad, and tragic, and yes I want every single one of them to come home, but when you start talking about adults who go missing, it’s nine times out of ten that they left by their own choice. They go to Florida or the Bahamas or someplace warm because they just couldn’t handle the pressures of their life. They go on walkabout in the Adirondack mountains to find themselves, or to a monastery to seek enlightenment.

K.J. Emrick, Cast the First Stone (Sidney Stone #1)