Noir November - The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

The Asphalt Jungle is one of the best movies in the crime genre ever made. The film boasts a solid cast of B-level actors (Sterling Hayden, James Whitmore, Sam Jaffe), great direction by John Huston, cinematography that captures the grit of the city and a tightly plotted story. It is required viewing for anyone who loves crime dramas, film noir or movies in general.

"Doc" Reidenschneider (Sam Jaffe), a master criminal known throughout the underworld, has just been released form prison. He travels to a nameless city somewhere in the Mid-West with a "caper" in mind. He gets in touch with Cobby a local fixer and bookie (played with ferret-like intensity by Marc Lawrence) and secures funding from a local lawyer, the shady Alonzo Emmerich (played with an oily, superficial charm by Louis Calhern). The plan is to rob a local jewel merchant of over half-a-million dollars in stones. "Doc" organizes a crew made up of Dix Handly (Sterling Hayden) as the "hooligan" (muscle), Louis Ciavelli (Anthony Caruso) as the "box man" (safe cracker) and Gus (James Whitmore), the driver. Even though the robbery is successful, the aftermath is more problematic. With the police on their trail and with treachery afoot, "Doc" and Dix have to figure out a way to escape The Asphalt Jungle.

Filmed in Cincinnati and Los Angeles (mostly in the latter, at MGM Studios), Huston gives the film an almost post-apocalyptic look. The city seems to be almost deserted. The opening sequences (where the Cincinnati shooting is featured) depict a rundown, urban wasteland. The only exteriors showing life outside of the "rough areas" of town are at the jewelry store at night, maintaining the stark and empty visual motif. Interiors are cramped and rundown from Gus's tiny greasy spoon diner to Cobby's minimalist gambling den to the claustrophobic apartments that the criminals live in. Even Emmerich's home and cottage/love nest for his mistress, Angela (Marilyn Monroe in a small but colorful part) are mostly small sets - an office, a bedroom, a foyer, probably the largest room, one that serves no function. One can understand the desperate nature of the characters, given the dark, constricted world they live in.

Sterling Hayden looking appropriately badass.

The cast is almost perfect. The characters are all film noir archetypes, from Hayden's thug with the dreams of a child (his only goal, his obsession, is to raise enough money to buy back the horse farm he lived on as a boy), to Jaffe's criminal mastermind with a fatal flaw. In this case, his flaw is his sensuality; he wants to live the good life, giving in to impulses that lead to his eventual - and inevitable - downfall. Emmerich is broke, living a life-style that has drained him of money and made him desperate. He has a bedridden wife and a young mistress, a good representation of his dual nature, the life he used to have (with a loving wife and, one gets the impression, a more respectable legal practice) and his life now (mistress "young enough to be his grand-daughter," defending criminals and getting directly involved in crime). These are rich, complex characters.

The film is also noteworthy for the amount of care and attention paid to the details of the heist. The audience is shown how much planning goes into a professional crime. From securing state-up funds, finding a "crew" and, once the robbery is underway, the details of defeating security systems, cracking a safe and dealing with the stolen goods afterwards. During the heist - an 11 minute scene - everyone behaves calmly and professionally, Huston's direction and the cast's acting selling the illusion that these men are professional thieves. While scenes like this are common now, for 1950 this was pretty revolutionary.

While the point of view of the police is presented, they are not shown in the best light. The lead detective is a crook, taking money from Cubby in exchange for not shutting down his gambling den. The police commissioner (John McIntire) while an upstanding man, is also shown to indulge in crude stereotypes about the men he is chasing. In particular, he says that Handly is a "man without human feeling, without human mercy" something he most definitely is not. Even the arrest of Reidenschneider presents a scene of moral ambiguity. Set in a roadside diner, Doc is paying a young woman to dance for him. While it is mostly innocent - she and her friends were dancing to music on juke box anyway - he clearly is getting pleasure watching her. As he leaves, two state troopers pick him up. He asks them how long they were waiting and they say long enough to watch the girl dancing as well. It is clear that audience is supposed to question how different the police and the criminals really are. In the end, there is a preachy scene where the commissioner addresses some reporters. Without the police, he says, there would be chaos. While this might be true, the movie portrays all levels of society as corrupt and driven by base desires. The most loyal relationships are between the criminals Gus and Dix, and Dix and Doll (Jean Hagen) his boozey, ditzy, but devoted friend (they have some sort of relationship, but are not a committed couple).

The Asphalt Jungle is a complex, multi-layered story, one that rewards repeat viewings with its rich characterizations and engaging acting. Huston creates a set of images that tells a story from the edge of civilization, in a morally bankrupt, physically decaying urban wasteland. Anyone who loves films or just great stories should see this.

Marilyn Monroe...is she good? Is she bad? Or is she just really, really hot...yep, that's it.