Night and the City (1950)

At nearly 70 years of age, Stanislaus Zbyszko made his film debut in Night and the City (1950). Billed as Gregorious, a retired wrestler and the father of London’s wrestling promoter, Zbyszko displayed his wrestling skills, even at his advanced age, in the film’s signature scene.

The movie begins with a man chasing Harry Fabian, a London hustler always looking for a get-rich-quick scheme. Disgruntled over another Fabian business deal gone bad, the man chases Fabian intending to beat the five pounds out of him. Richard Widmark plays Harry Fabian.

Fabian stumbles upon his next get-rich-quick scheme when he attends a wrestling card. Kristo, the son of Gregorious the Great, promotes wrestling in London. When his father observes the wrestlers working together, he yells, “Fake. Fake.” Leaving the arena in disgust, Gregorious intends to take his protégé Nikolas back to Athens.

Fabian convinces Gregorious to partner with him in promoting Greco-Roman wrestling knowing Kristo cannot touch Fabian, if Kristo’s father Gregorious partners with him. Fabian is successful in the short term but Kristo’s top wrestler, “The Strangler,” throws a major monkey wrench into Fabian’s plans.

Former professional wrestler Mike Mazurki portrayed the Strangler. Mazurki and Zbyszko created one of the greatest wrestling fights in a movie. The gym fight keeps the film popular seventy years after Jules Dassin directed it.

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Sources: Night and the City (1950) and Internet Movie Database (imdb.com)

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