224. The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

Directed By John Huston

Synopsis

Herr Doktor comes out of jail where he has been hatching a plan for a heist of plenty of diamonds, he needs people to make it happen and he finds a motley crew that will help them. As he rightly suspects, they are being betrayed by the financier/fence of the operation. After the heist, that works perfectly, everything goes wrong because of backstabbing.

Review

There is a huge problem with the production code, and that is the fact that a film like this doesn't work as well as it could if you are aware of the code. You immediately know that no criminal is going to get away with it, because it would not be allowed. So you are watching the film just waiting to see if they get caught or killed, but knowing that no one will get away.

John Huston shows his obsession with greed yet again, after Maltese Falcon and Treasure of Sierra Madre he gives us another cautionary tale about how whoever wants all, loses all. The film is extremely successful in all respects, the acting is great, the back story of all characters is fully developed, they feel real.

As a one of the first heist films it doesn't really focus on the heist in the way an Oceans 11 or Thomas Crown Affair does, the crime is just a pretext to explore human relationships and the overwhelming destructive power of greed. A good film.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:


* This highly regarded film noir was one of the first thrillers to show a crime and the consequences from the point-of-view of the burglars and their accomplices. According to film critic Tim Dirks, "[This was] something usually considered morally improper under the Production Code."

* When The Asphalt Jungle was made, Marilyn Monroe was a little known actress and given a small part. Whenever the film is reissued, Monroe usually figures prominently in the print ads or cover art.

* The Asphalt Jungle was based on the novel of the same name by the prolific W.R. Burnett, who earlier wrote the novel that became the well-known 1931 film Little Caesar.

* Regarding the overall theme of this film noir, film critic Lawrence Russell writes, "The approach is out of the tradition of American naturalism as seen in the novels of Norris, Dreiser, Lewis, and others, where character is determined by environment, the architect of fate. The characterizations are driven by the human need for freedom rather than the psychopathic need to kill."

* W.R. Burnett's novel The Asphalt Jungle was also the basis of the western film The Badlanders (1958) directed by Delmer Daves.

* According to film scholar Carlos Clarens in Crime Movies: An Illustrated History, "[The film] was criticized for its liberal attitude toward the underworld ... in Huston's words: 'My defense...was that unless we understand the criminal...there's no way of coping with him.'"

* The movie open shows a dismal city skyline, that of Cincinnati, OH and was shot from The Public Landing on the banks of the Ohio River.

* The film takes place in an unnamed city, but because Sterling Hayden says he is from Boone County, KY we can assume the unnamed city is Cincinnati.


The Heist: