He goads Kristo's top wrestler, the Strangler, (Mazurki) into a match with Gregorius; after a brutal struggle, Gregorius defeats the Strangler, but dies of a stroke after the fight. Soon, all of the London underworld is mobilized against Fabian, with a £1000 bounty on his worthless hide. Director Jules Dassin infuses a great deal of noir style into Night and the City. Dassin had been blacklisted during the Hollywood Red Scare years (after being fingered by fellow director Edward Dmytryk), and Night and the City was his first film after his exile from Hollywood. He uses the alleys, slums, and factories of London to full advantage to create a world where outsiders like Fabian don't stand a chance. In keeping with the traditions of the genre, no one really possesses a moral high ground in the story; the people who want Fabian eliminated and want his little house of cards knocked down are no better a set of losers than he is himself. Dassin often frames Fabian's gaunt features in bars and jagged fragments of light that serve as visual metaphors for his isolation and hopelessness. Widmark, riding a career high that would continue for several more years, turns in a great performance with his hyena giggle and nervous energy. Fabian only wanted to be somebody, but at the same time he had everything, he was a dead man, running and running as the web in which he enmeshed himself slowly strangled him.