Night and the City (1950)

Richard Widmark is an American conman living in London looking for his next big score. He finds it in the form of a veteran Greek wrestler though he has to contend with the wrestler’s son who effectively controls wrestling throughout London. It’s a somewhat convoluted plot where Widmark must manipulate his associates to get the permissions and the money that he needs to pull the scheme off, but that doesn’t detract from dark desperation that Widmark soon finds himself in. The extras on the Criterion DVD include a comparison of the British and American versions of the film which goes a long way to explaining how much a score can change the tone of a film.