Not only did The Asphalt Jungle provide a blueprint for all the heist films that have followed it, but its understanding of the criminal mind preceded the penchant for modishly psychological investigations of ‘the antihero’ by a good decade and a half. Indeed, not until Bonnie and Clyde (1967) were the antics of hoodlums and lawbreakers treated with such empathy by the mainstream American cinema. But where Bonnie and Clyde glorified and sexualised its gun-toting heroes, and tuned them fashionably into contemporary anti-establishment attitudes, Asphalt Jungle remains measured, grown-up and insightful in its exploration of alienation and the urban underworld.
Beautifully acted across the board, Jungle follows the recently paroled Doc (a sublimely sympathetic Sam Jaffe) as he recruits a gang of professional thieves to pull of a jewellery heist in an unspecified American city. The heist itself is exquisitely directed (influencing, among many others, Jules Dassin’s ne plus ultra of caper movies: Rififi), but it is the fine-honed portrayals of men with fatal flaws that makes Asphalt Jungle really stand out. Master criminal Jaffe is a little too civilised despite his weakness for glamour girls; shady lawyer Louis Calhern needs crime to pay for his debonair lifestyle, and to keep his young floozy (a fresh but fully-formed Marilyn Monroe) in shiny shoes; grimacing heavy Sterling Hayden has pipedreams of a better, legitimate life; and getaway driver James Whitmore is just too damned nice to really succeed in this seamy milieu. Although they are ensconced in criminal activity, these are vulnerable men with creditable ambitions: “After all,” says Calhern, “crime is only a left-handed form of human endeavour.” Huston and Ben Maddow wrote the bracing script, and Harold Rosson’s pin-sharp, ciaroscuro cinematography expertly balances the gritty with the expressive.
Hugely influential in its use of criminal vernacular (the safe cracker referred to as a 'Box Man', the tough guy as hooligan etc), this classic heist movie spawned a host of imitations, all of which failed to recapture the taut atmosphere, evocative black and white cinematography and shifting moral perspectives. Watch out too for a memorable early Marilyn Monroe cameo and the thrilling, lyrical finale. One of Huston's greatest films.
Sometimes, all the elements come together and produce that diamond-hard piece of work in the crime genre that shrugs off the vicissitudes of fashion over the years. Jo... more >
Sometimes, all the elements come together and produce that diamond-hard piece of work in the crime genre that shrugs off the vicissitudes of fashion over the years. John Huston's gritty urban crime thriller The Asphalt Jungle is in that category, and despite Huston’s very variable subsequent career (though this writer has a soft spot for his much-maligned Philip McDonald adaptation, The List of Adrian Messenger – why isn’t that on DVD?), The Asphalt Jungle still bids fair to be the definitive heist movie and a locus classicus of the film noir genre. Huston did justice to Burnett’s wide array of rich and complex characters in this hard-boiled piece about a group of thieves who mastermind a million-dollar jewellery store heist. The film's superb ensemble cast includes Sam Jaffe, Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, James Whitmore and an early appearance by Marilyn Monroe in only her seventh film role. The bleak, urban backdrop, beautifully shot by Henry Rosson, is a key element. < less
