... Asphalt Jungle (1950), the story of a well-planned jewel heist gone horribly wrong. That film was directed by John Huston. This one was directed by Wolf Rilla. Need I say more?
It makes the same mistake that many mediocre 60s movies made - They think they can film at an international location with international stars and substitute that for interesting characters and an intriguing plot. But this is practically a carbon copy of Asphalt Jungle, so wouldn't it have interesting characters and an intriguing plot by definition? Yes, but to succeed in execution you still need inspired acting and directing, and this film has none of that. Everybody involved seems so bored, and that made me bored.
There are a few changes. The focus shifts from perpetually angry street criminal Dix Hanley (Sterling Hayden) to the distinguished ex-con jewel thief mastermind Doc (Sam Jaffee). These were the characters and the actors who played them in the original. But here, the biggest star the production has is George Sanders as the mastermind, so the focus shifts to him. Sanders still has it, but it is hard to effectively frame the film around him since his character was originally a supporting role.
The biggest difference in the original Asphalt Jungle and this film is that the character of the crooked cop is completely missing. That could be because the Egyptians objected to an authority figure being portrayed as anything but perfect, or it could be because, in the original, the bad cop was a means to introducing some production code era moralizing and that would have made no sense in this environment and at this point in time.
I'd only recommend this as an object lesson in how important direction and acting and atmosphere are in the success of a production. And atmosphere does not equal pedestrian shots of an exotic locale.
