The Asphalt Jungle
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Movie Reviews of The Asphalt Jungle
Movie Review: Imitated ? Often. Bettered? Never!
Summary: 5 Stars
Adapted by director John Huston and co-scriptwriter Ben Maddow from the seminal novel by W R Burnett ,The Asphalt Jungle is THE caper movie .It has been the temp[late for dozens of movies most of which are not within touching distanace for quality .
It depicts the robbery of a upmarket jewellry store ,mastermindd by the newly released from incarceration criminal genius Doc Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe).The plan was devised during his recent incarceration and his first point of call on release is to a sleaxy and sweaty bookie ,Cobb ( the excellent Marc Lawrence)who brings in the outwardly affluent and smooth lawyer ,Emmerich(Louis Calhearn).He agrees to fence the loot for a $ 1 million fee b ut confides to his associate , a private eye (Brad dexter)that he intends to swindle the criminals and abscond with the loot .
The rest of the gang are assembled - a professional safecracker (Anthony Caruso) ; ,the diner owning cat loving hard as nails hunchback Gus Ninisi(James Whitmore)as the driver and Dix ,the hired muscle ( Sterling Hayden )who dreams of making enough money to buy back the family horse farm in Kentucky
After the briefing comes the execution of the plan which goes awry to some extent but they do get away with the loot .It is then the scheme begins to unravel
The performances are outstanding .Jaffe is creepy as the mastermind with a penchant for teenage girls that proves his undoing ;Calhearn brings a suitably oleaginous sheen to the role of the corrupt lawyer ,keeping a woman many years his junior( an early role for the voluptuous Monroe) Add forceful turns from Lawrence and Barry Kelly as a corrupt police Lieutenant and a fine turn from Hayden as the dim but likeable Dix and there is a ripe collection of quality performances to admire .The best work is done by Jean Hagen as Doll Conovan , a loving slightly dsperate woman who falls in love with Dix .It is an honest and deglamourised performance that adds to the warmth of the movie .for warmth their is .There is friendship between the gang that contrasts with the coldness of the cops
The only slight let down is a somewhat wan score by the normally reliable Miklos Rosza ,but direction and cinematography (Harold Rosson ) are exemplary.
This is a hard hitting movie showing us a range of criminal types from mastermind to cheap hoodlum ,through the craftsman safecracker to the outwardly respectable ,who turn out to be the most morally corrupt of them all .
An absolute masterwork -enjoy,because if you dont like this movie then you just dont like movies,period.
Movie Review: Pick Your Poison
Summary: 4 Stars
Won't bother with a synopsis here, just a list of a few things which knocked me out: Marc Lawrence as Cobby: the pockmarked, jumpy, scumbag booze hound, who gives a fabulous performance; the unworldly sexiness of Marilyn Monroe; the unctuous, supercilious Louis Calhern; the moment when Marilyn snuggles up to Calhern and gives him a passionate kiss: creepy stuff this, considering the age difference, and quite daring for 1950; the beautiful black and white photography and dramatic lighting; the powerful closeups which tell so much about the characters; the pathetic Jean Hagen character, who has a bad thing for Sterling Hayden's Dix; the great character actor Anthony Caruso, born 40 years too early for "The Sopranos"; and finally, Sam Jaffe, the Doc, who lingers too long in the truckstop cafe, gazing salaciously at the body of a gyrating teenage girl. The camera actually lingers and moves over her curves, almost caressing her, which is exactly what the Doc is doing, in his dirty mind.
Again, pretty powerful stuff for the time. Don't forget the youthful Strother Martin in the lineup at the beginning of the film. John McIntyre, a few years later in the landmark TV series The Naked City, gives a forceful performance as well, as a tough police commissioner.
Sterling Hayden was the Russell Crowe of his generation. Make sure you see The Killing, an early Kubrick powerhouse movie, also featuring Hayden.
Movie Review: Tough to beat
Summary: 5 Stars
John Huston's noir masterpiece about a carefully planned jewel heist that goes terribly wrong. What makes the picture so interesting is that each character is given a psychological motivation for participating in the crime. Once the robbery begins to go haywire we can see the irony behind each one's motivation, an often copied idea. Sterling Hayden is Dix, who just wants to get back to his father's horse farm in Kentucky, and Sam Jaffe is the mastermind whose love of music finally does him in. Marilyn Monroe appears as the floozy Angela. One of the great movies.Movie Review: The Criminal Underworld as Mirror Image.
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Asphalt Jungle", based on the novel by W. R. Burnett, was director John Huston's farewell to film noir style. His first film noir, 1941's "The Maltese Falcon", also adapted from a novel, was arguably the first film in the noir style, making Huston an essential contributor to the movement. "The Asphalt Jungle"'s apt subtitle, "The City Under the City", pretty well describes what the film is about: the criminal underworld. "The Asphalt Jungle" explores the planning, execution, and aftermath of a great jewel heist by a diverse band of criminals. Doc Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe) is a caper mastermind who has just been released from prison. Eager to execute a grand jewel heist, Doc immediately visits a bookmaker named Cobby (Marc Lawrence), whom he hopes can connect him to a financier for the project. Cobby introduces Doc to a crooked and apparently wealthy lawyer, Mr. Lon Emmerich (Louis Calhern), who jumps at the opportunity to finance the heist. They hire a boxman, or safecracker, Louis Ciavelli (Anthony Caruso), a driver, Gus (James Whitmore), and a hooligan, Dix Handley (Sterling Hayden) to pull the job. Things might go well if Emmerich were not actually broke and planning to double-cross his partners.
John Huston says in his introduction to the film, "You may not admire these people, but I think they'll fascinate you." In truth, the criminals of "The Asphalt Jungle" are more sympathetic than it's law enforcement agents, who number a corrupt bully and a self-righteous crusader. As Emmerich says in the film, "Crime is only a left-handed form of human endeavor." These characters have aspirations, hopes, and troubles similar to their law-abiding counterparts. And they are foiled by their obsessions. The underworld is a mirror image of the respectable world.
Louis Calhern and Sterling Hayden give memorable, complex performances as Emmerich, a corrupt lawyer whose extravagance and foolishness do everyone in, and as Dix, the farm boy turned stick-up man whose gambling stands in the way of his dreams. Marilyn Monroe has a small role as Emmerich's mistress, Angela. "The Asphalt Jungle" is great classic film noir with intriguing crooks and impressive character acting all around. The film was nominated for 4 Academy Awards in 1951, including best director, cinematography, and screenplay. W. R. Burnett's novel has since been adapted 3 more times (in 1958 as "The Badlanders", in 1963 as "Cairo", and in 1972 as "Cool Breeze"), but John Huston's "The Asphalt Jungle" is still the gold standard.
The DVD (Warner Home Video 2004 release): There is a 45-second introduction to the film by director John Huston, filmed around 1950. The sound quality is very poor, but you can make out what he's saying if you listen carefully. There is an audio commentary by film historian and USC School of Film and Television professor Drew Casper, with excerpts from an archival interview with actor James Whitmore. Dr. Casper is more a film historian than a noir specialist. He places the film in context by discussing the history of MGM studios in the decade preceding "The Asphalt Jungle". He talks about John Huston's directing style and the film's structure. Judging by this and other commentary that I've heard, Casper tends to think more in terms of genre than style. So he's looking at "The Asphalt Jungle" as a caper film more than a noir film. We don't get scene-by-scene or shot-by-shot analysis. Whitmore's interview is interjected where appropriate. He relates anecdotes about getting the job, director John Huston, and the film's cast. There is also a theatrical trailer (2 1/2 minutes). Subtitles for the film are available in English, French, and Spanish. Dubbing is available in French.
Movie Review: spineless
Summary: 2 Stars
I think that in its time (50+ years ago), "The Ashphalt Jungle" must have been a daring and innovative movie, but it's been so comprehensively and competently ripped off since then (e.g. "The Doberman Gang," "Reservoir Dogs," and countless others) that it's unlikely to strike a viewer these days as very powerful or memorable.
I don't think the writing of the film is as good as it's thought to be. I guess I'm one of those folks who feel that the "Golden Age of Hollywood" is a crock, and that movies are far better now: above all in terms of script integrity.
For example, take the fate of the "Doc." In accordance with Amazon guidelines, I won't specify what it is, but it seems like quite the deus ex machina there at the end: I don't really feel the writers "earned that." Just came out of the blue.
Also take the fate of Dix, the country hooligan. Again, watch for yourself to find out what happens: suffice to say he was thwarted by blind chance; not by his own doing -- or by the moral or civic failures of the kind of life he had come to lead.
I guess what I'm saying is that the way the "The Aspahlt Jungle" winds things up is, in effect, cheating, since the characters' fates aren't really sewn into the fabric of the film. I think scriptwriters these days would have made more of an effort to do something about that, to give the film either a "moral compass," an "unmoral compass," or even an "amoral compass." Something.
But this film hasn't got anything like that. Forget the compass; it lacks anything resembling a needle, and thus doesn't know what it wants to say, other than "crime doesn't pay."
In fact, maybe I've just now realized what bothered me about this film: the filmmakers seemed so taken with their idea of showing the "human" side of a heist that they evidently thought there was no need to further weave their stories together dramatically, philosophically, in terms of character, or, well, in any way -- except perhaps lighting and shadow.
Unfortunately, after so many brilliant rip-offs of Huston's premise, those oversights have become major liabilities when you look at it now.
Having said that, the film is far from bad, and you're unlikely to wholly regret watching it. But I'm telling you: we do things so much better these days, in so many ways.