MovieChat Forums > Night and the City (1950) Discussion > Why didn't Nicolas stand up for Harry (S...

Why didn't Nicolas stand up for Harry (Spoiler)?

posted 13 years ago by winonaforever2
3 replies | jump to latest

Maybe I missed something, but Harry didn't start the fight, right?. Isn't it clear that The Strangler and his dodgy trainer put the blame on Harry to save themselves from Kristo's retaliation? It was actually the trainer who stopped Harry from separating them and who wanted The Strangler to keep on fighting Gregorious. Wasn't Nicolas present as well? I can't remember why he's all of a sudden outside the picture. At least he could have said that that wasn't true, that Harry didn't start it. Maybe Kristos just wanted a way to get back at Harry. I just thought it was unfare that the two thugs ended up unscathed while Harry had to pay the price for something he didn't do. Great film though.

[–] Anorensic 9 years ago

Nicolas was trying to save himself and his man. Harry was a dead man either way, he knew it which is why he ran. Harry was the one who started it all even if he wasn't directly responsible for Gregorious's death.

-----
wat are you lookin' at...

[–] alydar21 8 years ago

Nicolas could not break up the fight. His wrist was snapped seconds earlier in the ring. The wrist break may have been the biggest crux of Harry's downfall. Since now, Nicolas could never fight the Strangler after Harry set it all up!

[–] momur (107) 3 years ago

Nikolas had broken his wrist when he was shoved out of the ring towards the start of the fight and Kristo was a highly dangerous thug who had just witnessed the fairly brutal death of his father (and who had no reason to either like or trust Nikolas much anyway). With Gregorius dead, Nikolas had virtually no reason to stick by Harry and I'd imagine that under those circumstances, Harry made for an easy scapegoat for everyone who had been present at the time. The thing is, Harry didn't start the fight but he was arguably ultimately responsible for it by setting up all the conditions for it to take place. He'd deliberately riled up the Strangler and led him to the gym, given him a bottle of what I think was whiskey, and even when the Strangler's manager tried to get the Strangler to stop insulting Nikolas and Gregorius, Harry just told him let the Strangler continue doing just that since it would lead to a good grudge-match. If Harry hadn't done any one of those things, the fight probably wouldn't have occurred (or, if it did, it might not have been as brutal). And to top it all off, Kristo saw all of this as being a betrayal of his father. Even if Nikolas had come to Harry's defence regarding the fight, he'd still be completely done for just for that alone. Harry's basically a classic film-noir protagonist who is constantly trying to get ahead but ends up severely out of his depth and unable to cope when things inevitably start falling apart.