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The Asphalt Jungle [1950]


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A realistic film
Review date: 2008-11-22 Rating: 10 out of 10

"The Asphalt Jungle" is one of the few Hollywood films to follow the Russian tradition of picture-making; for the film does not include actors who are "stars" in the accepted sense of the word, but people who have been encouraged to "sink" their characters fully into the roles they are playing. Even Marilyn Monroe - in one of her first film parts - is not listed in the opening credit titles.
The movie captures perfectly the weaknesses of human nature that comes from greed & the wish to have more than one`s "fair share" . The contrast in the characters is notable: for example, the coolness of the German "Doctor" and the nervousness of the bookmaker.
The black & white photography is gritty & helps create the sombre atmosphere of the film. The use of music too, is interesting: only in the first & last scenes of the picture is there any "soundtrack" background music. Otherwise the music emanates from "natural" sources i.e. radio, jukebox etc., altogether an absorbing film, well worth seeing; a classic of its kind.
John Harman.

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Reviews


Great crime flick
Review date: 2008-03-01 Rating: 10 out of 10

The problem with todays crime movies is that so many of them talk the talk but dont walk the walk.
John Houston's 1953 heist movie puts them all to shame, simply because it understands what makes career criminals tick, and it manages to combine street style with character substance. On one level there is the plan, the operation and the betrayal that inevitably follows. But beneath this we are given glimpses into the domestic lives, impossible dreams and personality flaws of the heavy, the safecracker, the mastermind, the getaway driver, the financier- character types transformed into real flesh and blood. Brilliant.


Timing Is All...
Review date: 2008-02-19 Rating: 8 out of 10

...in this film about a jewel heist in the Mid West of the USA. Sterling Hayden's tough guy role would have been the lead then, though Marilyn Monroe is now billed ahead of him, even though it was one of her earlier parts and a smallish one at that, as the "teen" (? she looks about 20) girlfriend of crooked attorney Mr. Emrich. In fact, young girls seem to be the order of the day as elderly master criminal Sam Jaffe gets caught in the end because he wastes a few minutes watching the semi-erotic dancing of an even younger teenage girl in a diner. Well, so I'm not complaining!

As the Amazon synopsis indicates, Rank made a lavish and watchable later (though still black and white-- a bad mistake with such an exotic location) attempt to all but copy the plot in the 1963 film Cairo (with George Sanders as the mastermind, also eventually caught while watching a great bellydance somewhere by the Nile). Even the injured gunman antihero copies Hayden's doomed last journey to his home farm, though in the film Cairo the farm is somewhere south of the city, by the Nile, Cairo the film having been filmed on location.

Still well worth watching is this heist classic, which never bores.

Intriguing and involving
Review date: 2007-12-30 Rating: 8 out of 10

This is a bit of a gem in terms of heist films. Whether or not it really invented the genre is not important. What is worth considering is that it has a really good set of characters that intertwine fabulously in a rather good plot. Rather than spoil the film by explaining everyone and thing, lets just say that the heist itself is nearly flawless. Then there is the inevitable double cross - but by whom you ask? Lets say its very much a source of the Ocean's 12 type of game. Nevertheless, the acting underpins a good old-fashioned storyline, where you actually have to watch and listen (and not switch off!)

Film noir, not in its truest sense, but yes its nearly there - certainly adding more to it than just tension.

I stumbled on this, didn't know much about it, but ended up liking it. It only gets 4 stars, because the transfer to DVD is a bit shoddy. Worth watching though.

Best crime film ever
Review date: 2007-11-24 Rating: 10 out of 10

Claims that this film 'invented' the caper movie may seem excessive, since this wasn't the first time a heist had been depicted from the crooks' point of view. But what made The Asphalt Jungle so fresh was the sympathy and sensitivity with which it characterised its 'crooked' heroes.

One of the studio heads (Louis B. Mayer, I think) famously said he 'wouldn't cross the road to see that Asphalt Pavement thing' because it was about 'ugly people doing ugly things'. In fact, the criminals in John Huston's film are far less 'ugly' than the ones contemporary audiences were used to, and this may in fact have been what Mayer found so discomfiting about the experience.

As Louis Calhern's crooked banker says when trying to soothe his wife's fears about the criminals with whom he associates, 'they're not so different really - after all, crime is only a left-handed form of human endeavour'. The moment sums up the film's outlook, and Huston delights in juxtaposing the single-minded prejudice and condemnation of the 'good citizens' in the film with the essential decentness of his three-dimensional protagonists.

Huston is sometimes credited with making the first 'true' film noir, The Maltese Falcon. With The Asphalt Jungle, he gave the Noir genre more depth and sophistication and sheer human feeling than had even its greatest exponents (Wilder, Tourneur, Huston himself, etc) during the 1940s. And the impression stuck: The Killing and Rififi spring most readily to mind as direct imitations of The Asphalt Jungle.

This is as beautifully photographed, written, acted and directed a crime film as you will ever see, and why there aren't already a hundred gushing reviews for it on this page I really don't know. You need to see it.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Louis Calhern
Sterling Hayden
Jean Hagen
Marilyn Monroe
Sam Jaffe

Creators:
Marilyn Monroe (Primary Contributor)
Sterling Hayden (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
EAN: 7321900504836
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Black & White, Full Screen, PAL,
Release date: 2006-06-01
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 112 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1950
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: English (Original Language)

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