Part 4: Who to Trust?

10. The Asphalt Jungle - John Huston (1950)
11. In a Lonely Place - Nicholas Ray (1950)
12. Night and the City - Jules Dassin (1950)

Who to trust? A perfect heist gone wrong, a violent and embittered writer accused of murder, a born loser destined to fail. Fully entrenched in the world of film noir Hollywood began to craft the genre to perfection. Stylistically dynamic, tragically poignant, the characters in these films hopelessly search for a way out, for something to believe, for something to trust.

In John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle a gang of thieves fall apart after executing the perfect heist—double-crossing, treachery, betrayal, greed. Who do trust when everyone is a suspect?

In Nicholas Ray’s In a Lonely Place, Humphrey Bogart plays Dixon Steele, a violent tempered writer accused of murder. When Laurel Gray (played by Gloria Grahame) provides a false alibi for Dixon, she finds herself inextricably connected to him. But can she trust him? Is his violent temper truly a murderous one?

Finally, in Jules Dassin’s Night and the City, Richard Widmark plays Harry Fabian, a bit-two hustler on the streets of London. Fabian is an enterprising con man who’s hopes and dreams to hit the big time never seem to pan out. More than anything , at the core of Fabian’s character is the desire to be trusted by his girl friend Mary Bristol (played by Gene Tierney). Fabian is crippled by the idea that Mary has no confidence or trust in his schemes.

Is it so surprising that the tenor of American film at this time should seem so suspicious and insecure? The Cold War against Russia and Communism had turned the eye inward, Americans were now faced with an enemy within. Anyone could be a Communist, your friend, your neighbour, even your family. Suspicion and fear ran rampant and it turned America against itself. Jules Dassin, fled to London to film Night and the City after being warned by his producer that he was about to be ‘black listed.’ John Huston and Sterling Hayden were members of the Committee for the First Amendment which opposed the Hollywood Blacklist. For Hollywood as well as the rest of America, there was no escape from the ‘Red Scare.’ No matter what side of the fence you found yourself with, the question was present: ‘Who do you trust?’

Devon Gallant