Harry Fabian is a fast-talking ambulance chaser. He sues and settles, looking to make it big as he carries on an affair with the wife of the owner of his Manhattan cafe hang out. While losing a case to a local mobster who fronts as a sports promoter, Fabian whiffs his future at a boxing gym - he decides to be an impresario. For protection from the mobster, he recruits the boss's older brother as his judge of talent, he books a hall, he orders posters. Soon he's in debt waiting for the big night to rake in the cash. His sweetheart wants to leave her husband, so she needs Fabian's help to get a liquor license. The mobster is making trouble. Can Fabian pull it all off?

Martin Scorsese was originally set to direct but dropped out. In fact, it was Scorsese who recruited screenwriter Richard Price to write a draft. According to an interview with Neal Gabler, Price said, "[Scorsese] felt like he had already 'done' [Night in the City] in all his other films... there was no challenge for him." It would be another six years before Producer/Director Irwin Winkler and Robert De Niro became interested in making the film.

Harry Fabian:
A toast, a toast, a toast, a toast. To you all. No, the hell with you all. To me all.

Performed by Rodney Saulsberry