The Asphalt Jungle
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Movie Reviews of The Asphalt Jungle
Movie Review: very good crime drama, exciting, and well-cast
Summary: 3 Stars
This John Huston-directed film is a very excellent crime movie, with good action and a bevy of capable actors, which can be classified as a galaxy of shining stars. Marilyn Monroe was not out of character as a cute, sexy young blonde-haired girl with whom the much-older lawyer (the role played by Louis Calhern) was so taken. James Whitmore was good as a hostile, almost red-neck, man. Sam Jaffe (who played "Der Professor") was a very intelligent master-mind of crimes. Jean Hagan was convincing as an unhappy lady who worked at a clip joint. For the role of the mean gambler Dix Hanley, who could fill that role better than Sterling Hayden, who was virtually totally mean?
It was the story of a "perfect crime" (a jewel heist) which went wrong, simply because an alarm in the city was activated, and the whole town became (no pun intended) alarmed itself. All the characters all too soon became angrily at odds with each other, divided against themselves. In this movie/story, the adage "crime does not pay" was very fitting.
What was also fitting was the darkness all through the movie, but it had to be to match with the mood of the story.
John Huston, to be sure, made this movie an attention-getter. It was a very outstanding movie of its kind. Don't miss it.
Movie Review: crime doesn't pay message
Summary: 3 Stars
The head bad guy in this movie is a crooked lawyer
who is having an affair with Marilyn Monroe.
The jewel heist is well planned, but everything does wrong.
Sterling Hayden is one that the action centers around
and he is described as a small time hooligan.
The movie is mad with class, but seems to be a "message"
peace about crooked cops and crime.
I liked the movie, but couldn't give it top
marks because the characterizations were
mostly like comic book cut outs.
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.