Please don't spend money on this.

It is a performances centric movie

I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Directed by John Huston, this noir heist film is strong and well-balanced. The main characters in the caper are well-developed - the brain, an older German-American guy who has just gotten out of prison (Sam Jaffe), the safecracker with a wife and little baby (Anthony Caruso), the driver, a hunchbacked diner owner (James Whitmore), and the southern-fried muscleman (Sterling Hayden). They are brought together by a bookie (Marc Lawrence), and plan to fence the jewels they steal to a rich lawyer (Louis Calhern).To describe what happens would be to spoil the film, but suffice to say that even the best laid plans are fraught with peril, and unexpected events. I appreciated how Huston spent the time developing the characters and kept the story tight, without resorting to excess violence or plot twists. You still get the usual sorts of things - snappy dialogue, tense standoffs, double-crosses, etc - but it all feels intelligent. There are extended periods in the film without any background music, which I found refreshing. Each scene contributes to the story, and there is a spare feeling to the visuals, both of which make it feel authentic.There is also a human element in the relationship Caruso has with his wife (Teresa Celli), and in Whitmore standing up to comments about his deformity. It's a small moment in the movie, but it's quietly powerful when he says with dignity, "What I carry on my back, I was born with it. I didn't grow it myself." Also humanizing are the separate dreams Jaffe and Hayden have of running away from it all afterwards (Jaffe to Mexico to be in the warm weather and 'young girls', ok, ugh; Hayden to re-purchase his family farm in Kentucky). Everyone has a weakness, a flaw, but at the same time, a positive attribute. Jaffe is smart and a gentleman criminal, but he's also a pervert. Hayden is tough and the opposite of greedy, but he's also a compulsive gambler (and loser) at the horse races.Huston also shows us bad police behavior - pushing a witness to make a false ID, accepting a payoff from the bookie, and using their muscle when under pressure to make arrests. I loved how this was balanced by a little segment with the police radio from the commissioner (John McIntire), who flicks the calls of distress on one by one, and then points out: "People are being cheated, robbed, murdered, raped. And that goes on 24 hours a day, every day in the year. And that's not exceptional, that's usual. It's the same in every city of the modern world. But suppose we had no police force, good or bad. Suppose we had...just silence. Nobody to listen. Nobody to answer. The battle's finished. The jungle wins. The predatory beasts take over. Think about it."As a side bonus to all of this, you get Marilyn Monroe in a small role as Calhern's mistress. She was just 24, and this film, along with "All About Eve" from the same year, were the ones that started generating serious attention for her. Her performance is uneven at best, but when she turns on the charm with Calhern, or asks one of the cops "Do I have to talk to him? Couldn't I just talk to you?", her face so naturally assuming the look of a little girl, she's electric.There's also a wonderful dance sequence from a young girl (Helene Stanley) in a diner, who cuts loose in a very charming way after given a bunch of change for the jukebox. What a fun moment that is, maybe my favorite in the entire film, and how it fit into the plot and Jaffe's proclivities is very clever. My only small criticism is with Sterling Hayden, who got top billing, but just didn't resonate with me. I think it was something about the way he spoke, which seemed too 'heavy', if that makes any sense. Jean Hagen as his girlfriend was just average too. Calhern is brilliant as the shady lawyer, and the rest of the cast turn in solid performances. I considered a slightly higher rating, since you can so clearly see the effect this film had on others which would follow (Rififi from 1955 comes immediately to mind). Solid film.

One of John Huston's all-time classics depicts a jewel robbery that the perpetrators see as the perfect heist. Huston gave "The Asphalt Jungle" a cast of lesser known actors, forcing the viewer to focus exclusively on the story. As for the cast, there was probably no better actor for the lead role than Sterling Hayden (a few years away from playing a psychotic general in "Dr. Strangelove"). His scowling face and guttural voice fit the character perfectly. You may have heard that Marilyn Monroe stars in the movie. She does, but only in a supporting role (she wasn't yet a star). Nonetheless, her character IS a hottie.As in many heist-themed movies, there's the planning and the execution. The execution actually goes by pretty quickly. Sure enough, the characters discover that there's more to come. Thanks to the editing and cinematography, the whole end sequence is one of the most intense in movie history.All in all, it's definitely a movie that I recommend. The rest of the cast includes Louis Calhern (the ambassador in "Duck Soup"), Jean Hagen (the cacophonous starlet in "Singin' in the Rain"), James Whitmore (the Miracle Gro guy), Sam Jaffe (the doctor in "The Day the Earth Stood Still"), John McIntire (the sheriff in "Psycho"), Marc Lawrence (the hit-man in "Foul Play") and Brad Dexter (one of the Magnificent Seven).In conclusion, it's no skin off my asphalt.

THE ASPHALT JUNGLE is a film with extremely realistic description of the criminals (losers) in a successful enterprise. At the center of the story is a robbery carried out by a group of criminals who, regardless of social position and education essentially losers from the start. The film, which has a distinctly noir style seems natural in a vicious circle of crime in which criminals devour themselves. From the above it can be concluded that the characterization is very good. Taking into account characteristics such as loyalty or duplicity, this would be one of many good noir films.I can only conclude from the criminals in this film are not up, well-planned, robbery. In fact they are not explicitly negative characters. They are quite vulnerable. These are seen when things went wrong. Robbery in the film is on one hand a lifeline for criminals (who could not reach), and on the other side the redemption of the police. Fascinating is the way in which the director merged underground. Rogue and bully, rich and cheeky bookie, an ex-con with a brilliant plan of robbery and well-known lawyer who was left penniless. Each of the characters wants a sort of salvation.Sterling Hayden as Dix Handley is confident, fiery and arrogant bully who just wants to go home. Louis Calhern as Alonzo D. Emmerich is witty and resourceful lawyer, who used all means to get his hands on the spoils and with his mistress fled the country. Sam Jaffe as "Doc" Erwin Riedenschneider is a mastermind and a criminal who acts like he has all the cards up his sleeve. I have to mention Marilyn Monroe as a mistress. Well, beautiful and incredibly hot mistress.Everything seems pretty rotten but basically it is not. This movie is a balanced blend of action and reaction of the same character.

Sam Jaffe gets out of stir after having served his time and promptly has plans for another heist. But he needs the usual men of experience: the safe-cracker, the driver, etc. Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, James Whitmore, Jean Hagen, and Marilyn Monroe costar in this film noir, that has been hailed as one of the best of its kind. I saw it almost 20 years ago and for some reason I remember not liking it much. Normally any story of criminals on the run come to no good (end) and there's nothing to like about them and nothing (thank goodness) to relate to. Maybe that's why I didn't like it, and I was young… But seeing it today, I recognize all the elements that come together in this story of people gone bad. After all, it's the story of people that make any movie interesting and worth watching. Instead of just taking them at face value and shooting at each other, we are allowed into their private worlds. One man speaks of his wife and little girl. One man longs for his youth and his horse, wanting to go home again. Jean Hagen is a standout as she takes in Sterling Hayden and falls in love with him. She was Oscar-nominated for "Singin' in the Rain" but I think she's just as good if not better here. Marilyn Monroe is memorable in three short scenes and holds her own against real pros. And, Sam Jaffe and Sterling Hayden are good too, but perhaps the biggest impression on the viewers is Louis Calhern, who embodies and conveys his character's eccentricities so well. He's so subdued yet so intense and desperate. He always seems to be picture perfect – well dressed, in control, calm, when really it's bottled up. The whole production has the John Huston touch and it really packs a wallop. All the key parts are here to make this a must-see film noir. But in fact it's the story of people and choices and wrong turns that makes this transcend all other heist movies.