The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

When the intelligent criminal Erwin "Doc" Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe) is released from prison, he seeks a fifty thousand-dollar investment from the bookmaker Cobby (Marc Lawrence) to recruit a small gang of specialists for a million-dollar heist of jewels from a jewelry. Doc is introduced to the lawyer Alonzo D. Emmerich (Louis Calhern) that offers to finance the whole operation and buy the gems immediately after the burglary. Doc hires the safecracker Louis Ciavelli (Anthony Caruso), the driver Gus Minissi (James Whitmore)and the gunman Dix Handley (Sterling Hayden) to the heist. His plan works perfectly but bad luck and betrayals compromise the steps after the heist and the gangsters need to flee from the police.

"The Asphalt Jungle" is a fantastic film-noir by the legendary director John Huston and with magnificent performances. The brilliant story of bad luck and betrayal in a heist was nominated to four Oscars, three Golden Globes and nominated and winner of several other prizes. Marilyn Monroe is sexy and gorgeous in a minor but important role. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "O Segredo das Jóias" ("The Secret of the Jewels")

Note: On 30 September 2016, I saw this film again.

Fmovies: It took over 40 years until Goodfellas was made to make a film interesting and realistic about criminals as The Asphalt Jungle. The power in the characters that John Huston brings to life is so vivid and you root for them, yet you never forget they are criminals.

Sam Jaffe, a cool and calculating planner, brings a scheme to big time lawyer Louis Calhern about a jewel robbery. Calhern is a criminal attorney who really does work both sides of the fence. But he's also got some high living expenses and a young mistress in the shape of Marilyn Monroe in the first film that got her notice.

Jaffe needs three to help pull off the job, a safe cracker, a driver, and a strong arm guy, a 'hooligan' as he calls it. Calhern provides them in the persons of Anthony Caruso, James Whitmore, and Sterling Hayden.

You wouldn't think it, but Jaffe and Hayden bond in this. The educated criminal mastermind and a man who might not have finished grade school. Jaffe sees in Hayden a reliable sort.

Sterling Hayden did not think too much of most of the action/adventure stuff he did, but he liked The Asphalt Jungle as well he should. He's a country kid, his nickname is 'Dix' short for Dixie. His family owned a farm and bad luck hit them as it did so many in The Great Depression. Hayden turns to criminal enterprise because his skills for making an honest living are limited. His biggest accomplishment is having a B girl from a clip joint fall hard for him in the person of Jean Hagen. Both of their characterizations ring well and true, dare I say it, sterling performances.

Of course after the job is done, fallible and corrupt human beings like bookmaker Marc Lawrence, corrupt police lieutenant Barry Kelley, strong arm man Brad Dexter, and Calhern himself bring the whole thing crashing down.

One of the reasons you root so hard for the criminals to succeed is the magnificent and unheralded performance of John McIntire as the police commissioner. Imagine if Charles Laughton as Inspector Javert, had not gotten so tangled up in searching for Jean Valjean and rose to become the head of the Surete in France. You've got McIntire. I don't think any honest cop has been made so unpleasant on the screen before or since. At one point he's telling the press that he'll get Hayden and Hayden is a callous brute. The most callous person in the cast is McIntire and we go through 112 minutes of The Asphalt Jungle and know how very human Sterling Hayden is.

Sam Jaffe got an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, but lost to George Sanders in All About Eve. The film itself got three other nominations including for Huston as Best Director. It had the bad luck to run up against another classic film in All About Eve, in it's own way as cynical a film as The Asphalt Jungle.

John Huston took a cast and got perfect performances out of the lot of them and The Asphalt Jungle holds up every bit over fifty years later. Should really be seen beside Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas to get a full appreciation for today's generation.

A major heist goes off as planned , an ex-convict (Sam Jaffe) gathering a gang (Sterling Hayden , Marc Lawrence , James Withmore , Anthony Caruso ..) to pull it off until bad luck and double crosses cause everything to unravel.

This is a realistic study heist ; dealing with the plotting and the gathering of a misfit band that sours , building suspense , intrigue , emotion in Crescendo for any unexpected surprises that might pop up . Plenty of excellent characterization and tautly made , resulting one of the greatest crime movies of all time . The picture is well paced with an electric current that never let up . The movie has the thematic unity of 'Key Largo' , ' We were strangers' , ' Maltese Falcon' or ' The treasure of Sierra Madre' the John Huston's best . This thrilling story is stunningly scripted by Ben Maddow and the same John Huston from a W.R. Burnett novel ; letting the audience in early on what the outcome will be and increasing in power as they scheme the path closer to their destination . Both Director John Huston and ex-communist star Sterling Hayden were members of the Committee for the First Amendment, which stood against the blacklisting of alleged communists working in the film industry during the Red Scare . The main credit for this masterpiece must be shared among Sterling Hayden as a tough criminal , Louis Calhern as a mean lawyer and especially Sam Jaffe as an old ex-con . Furthermore , top-notch support cast , Jean Hagen as Doll Conovan , James Whitmore as Gus Minissi , John McIntire as Police Commissioner Hardy , Marc Lawrence as Cobby , Barry Kelley as Lt. Ditrich , Anthony Caruso as Ciavelli and debut of Strother Martin and Jack Warden. And of course a splendid bit by Marilyn Monroe as Angela , John Huston originally intended the role of Angela Phinlay for Lola Albright . The musical scoring by Miklós Rózsa is magnificent , being perfectly attuned but extremely scant, occurring only for the main titles, continuing through the opening sequence up to the point where Handley enters the café, and then returns some 107 minutes later when Handley and Doll return to his boyhood farm , total scoring just under 6 minutes

Rating : Above average , this is one of John Huston's best films , a model of his kind , definitely a must see if you are aficionado to Noir Film . Huston broke a new ground with this landmark movie , providing classic scenes and unforgettable dialogs . Also shown in horrible computer-colorized adaptation . Frequentely imitated and remade no less than five times in different styles such as Western in ¨Badlands¨¨ by Delmer Daves with Alan Ladd , Katy Jurado and Ernest Borgnine , set in Egypt titled ¨Cairo¨ by Wolf Rilla with George Sanders , Richard Johnson , Eric Pohlmann and Blaxploitation ¨Cool Breeze¨ by Barry Pollack with Thalmus Rasulala , Judy Pace , Lincoln Kilpatrick , Margaret Avery and Pam Grier .

The Asphalt Jungle fmovies. I hadn't seen The Asphalt Jungle for nearly 30 years until tonight, I think I must have (wrongly) considered it to be a "modern film", ie post rock'n'roll and dismissed it as too earthy as a result. Well I was wrong, it's certainly a Golden Age film made with high production values, with all the right actors, direction, music and story the Golden Age had produced. The music especially links it back to Double Indemnity and of course Huston to The Maltese Falcon, Jaffe to Lost Horizon etc. It was simply a signpost to the type of films to come , the ones I avoid.

It's gritty, as realistic as a gritty fantasy could be in 1950, as realistic as I want. The multi character interplay sticks in the mind, everyone's grafting and ready to dump on the next guy, apart from The Hooligan who dumb as he is really has a heart. It's Sam Jaffe's film though, his calculating but flawed dirty old man character was a classic perv-ormance, nowadays we would not have been spared the sleaze, but he walked a fine line successfully.

And again, the sleazy relationship between Uncle Louis Calhern and young Marilyn Monroe was perfectly handled.

All in all a marvellous film from the twilight years of the Golden Age.

I'm a sucker for a good heist film, and three of the best I've ever seen were made around 1955/56 - 'Rififi', 'Bob le flambeur' and 'The Killing'. Now they are still three of the greatest crime thrillers ever made, but now that I've finally seen 'The Asphalt Jungle' it's obvious what source those movies were drawing on! Not that I'm saying they're rip offs, they're not, but they are kind of three (excellent) variations on Huston's theme. 'The Asphalt Jungle' must therefore be seen as the most influential crime movie of the modern era, and the blueprint for every subsequent caper movie ('The Anderson Tapes', 'Thief', 'Reservoir Dogs', 'The Usual Suspects', 'The Score',etc.etc.) This superb film noir is almost impossible to fault. The script is first rate, John Huston's direction is inspired, Sterling Hayden - possibly America's most underrated actor - is fantastic as troubled ex-con Dix Handley, and the ensemble cast are all excellent, especially James Whitmore ('Them!'), Louis Calhern ('Notorious'), Sam Jaffe ('The Day The Earth Stood Still') and John McIntire ('Psycho'). The early role for Marilyn Monroe made a strong impact on a lot of people, but I was even more impressed by Jean Hagen as Doll. She is unforgettable and her scenes with Hayden are wonderful. Why did she never become a major star? This is a crime classic and brilliant entertainment. Highly recommended!

I guess the great John Huston knew what he was doing when making this film. Get the right cast and so he did.! The timeless touches in this film make it so watchable so often that we forget that a studio like MGM rarley made a gutty film like this.

Every character in the " Asphalt Jungle" has his/her moments! When Angela Phinley says to Emerich( Calhern) what will happen and Emerich responds the appropriate " you'll have lots of vacation".

Marc Lawrence as cobby has never been better since his part as Ziggy in "Key Largo" Jean Hagen shows some real ability and we wonder why she was used in future films to a lessor effect.Hayden, as Dix Hanley has a warped credo for a man on the edge.Sam Jaffe steals the show as doc..smart enough in most items save for your girls dancing in bars.

Even the supporting cast shines under Huston, Mcintre and the police chief , Brad Dexter as the crooked investigator, Barry Kelly as the corrupt cop with James Whitmore playing a man whose body is warped but whose soul is still intact.

Thanks goodness there is no music( film score) during the jewel heist. This fact alone lets us know this is a real film..unlike the ones being released today.

Mikos Rosza's score is emotional for sure..and the final in a Kentucky field is very poetic a la Huston

Perfection...

C Pope