Quand la ville dort

THE ASPHALT JUNGLE is a sometimes unsung triumph of director/writer John Huston. Sterling Hayden plays a down and out hoodlum who pairs up with cheesecake obcessed master thief Sam Jaffee. The seedy urbane characters that populate their world keep you glued to the screen. Marilyn Monroe is perfect as the spoiled mistress of crooked lawyer Louis Calhern. James Whitmore deserved an Oscar for his role as Gus, the diner owner with a fondness for kittens and crime. Has a great look, will make you pine for more black and white.

I suppose the only reason why this movie can be purchased on video (not on DVD though, it seems) is the fact that Marilyn Monroe plays a part in it. If I am right, this shows how much the movie industry has to rely on big names. Sometimes this is a real shame. No movie proves this better than Asphalt Jungle.

This caper movie is one of my all time favorites and frankly the best of its genre. Its brilliance lies for me in the fact that no big name of the Hollywood acting community was involved – Monroe was small fries then. Instead John Huston worked with a cast of reliable, mostly very experienced character actors many people will know as "supports" from numerous other movies of the period. And many of those actors probably gave here the best performances of their lives. Everybody is cast dead right, this is what is so magnificent about Asphalt Jungle. The balance is perfect, the chemistry works all ways. Maybe just one miscast actor or actress would have spoiled the whole atmosphere. No one is overacting at any time, and there are many, many very moving moments as one can observe these characters struggling on the sidelines of urban society.

One is always tempted to name an actress or an actor whose performance one liked best in a movie. Here, I could not do it – I liked them all. Yet I want to mention one actor: Louis Calhern. Seldom has a sudden change of mood and countenance in a character had such an impact on me as a viewer.

I hadn't seen The Asphalt Jungle for nearly 30 years until tonight, I think I must have (wrongly) considered it to be a "modern film", ie post rock'n'roll and dismissed it as too earthy as a result. Well I was wrong, it's certainly a Golden Age film made with high production values, with all the right actors, direction, music and story the Golden Age had produced. The music especially links it back to Double Indemnity and of course Huston to The Maltese Falcon, Jaffe to Lost Horizon etc. It was simply a signpost to the type of films to come , the ones I avoid.

It's gritty, as realistic as a gritty fantasy could be in 1950, as realistic as I want. The multi character interplay sticks in the mind, everyone's grafting and ready to dump on the next guy, apart from The Hooligan who dumb as he is really has a heart. It's Sam Jaffe's film though, his calculating but flawed dirty old man character was a classic perv-ormance, nowadays we would not have been spared the sleaze, but he walked a fine line successfully.

And again, the sleazy relationship between Uncle Louis Calhern and young Marilyn Monroe was perfectly handled.

All in all a marvellous film from the twilight years of the Golden Age.

When the intelligent criminal Erwin "Doc" Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe) is released from prison, he seeks a fifty thousand-dollar investment from the bookmaker Cobby (Marc Lawrence) to recruit a small gang of specialists for a million-dollar heist of jewels from a jewelry. Doc is introduced to the lawyer Alonzo D. Emmerich (Louis Calhern) that offers to finance the whole operation and buy the gems immediately after the burglary. Doc hires the safecracker Louis Ciavelli (Anthony Caruso), the driver Gus Minissi (James Whitmore)and the gunman Dix Handley (Sterling Hayden) to the heist. His plan works perfectly but bad luck and betrayals compromise the steps after the heist and the gangsters need to flee from the police.

"The Asphalt Jungle" is a fantastic film-noir by the legendary director John Huston and with magnificent performances. The brilliant story of bad luck and betrayal in a heist was nominated to four Oscars, three Golden Globes and nominated and winner of several other prizes. Marilyn Monroe is sexy and gorgeous in a minor but important role. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "O Segredo das Jóias" ("The Secret of the Jewels")

Note: On 30 September 2016, I saw this film again.

I guess the great John Huston knew what he was doing when making this film. Get the right cast and so he did.! The timeless touches in this film make it so watchable so often that we forget that a studio like MGM rarley made a gutty film like this.

Every character in the " Asphalt Jungle" has his/her moments! When Angela Phinley says to Emerich( Calhern) what will happen and Emerich responds the appropriate " you'll have lots of vacation".

Marc Lawrence as cobby has never been better since his part as Ziggy in "Key Largo" Jean Hagen shows some real ability and we wonder why she was used in future films to a lessor effect.Hayden, as Dix Hanley has a warped credo for a man on the edge.Sam Jaffe steals the show as doc..smart enough in most items save for your girls dancing in bars.

Even the supporting cast shines under Huston, Mcintre and the police chief , Brad Dexter as the crooked investigator, Barry Kelly as the corrupt cop with James Whitmore playing a man whose body is warped but whose soul is still intact.

Thanks goodness there is no music( film score) during the jewel heist. This fact alone lets us know this is a real film..unlike the ones being released today.

Mikos Rosza's score is emotional for sure..and the final in a Kentucky field is very poetic a la Huston

Perfection...

C Pope