The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

A major heist goes off as planned, until bad luck and double crosses cause everything to unravel.

Director:

John Huston

Writers:

Ben Maddow (screen play), John Huston (screen play)

Stars:

Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 5 wins & 10 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Sterling Hayden	...	Dix Handley
Louis Calhern	...	Alonzo D. Emmerich
Jean Hagen	...	Doll Conovan
James Whitmore	...	Gus Minissi
Sam Jaffe	...	Doc Erwin Riedenschneider
John McIntire	...	Police Commissioner Hardy
Marc Lawrence	...	Cobby
Barry Kelley	...	Lt. Ditrich
Anthony Caruso	...	Louis Ciavelli
Teresa Celli	...	Maria Ciavelli
Marilyn Monroe	...	Angela Phinlay
William 'Wee Willie' Davis	...	Timmons (as William Davis)
Dorothy Tree	...	May Emmerich
Brad Dexter	...	Bob Brannom
John Maxwell	...	Dr. Swanson

Storyline

When the intelligent criminal Erwin "Doc" Riedenschneider is released from prison, he seeks a fifty thousand-dollar investment from the bookmaker Cobby 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 that offers to finance the whole operation and buy the gems immediately after the burglary. Doc hires the safecracker Louis Ciavelli, the driver Gus Minissi and the gunman Dix Handley 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.

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Plot Keywords:

jewel heist | heist | financial problem | criminal mastermind | mortal wound | 

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Taglines:

The City Under the City

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English German

Release Date:

1 June 1950 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Asphalt Jungle (The City Under the City)

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,232,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$1,077,000, 31 December 1950

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$2,137,000, 31 December 1950

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

John Huston, an avid horseman, had a team of Irish stallions boarded and trained at MGM talent executive Lucille Ryman Carroll's ranch, and he happened to be $18,000 in arrears for payments to the ranch. On a Sunday afternoon in September, Carroll and her husband invited Huston out to the ranch and made him an offer he couldn't refuse, to borrow a line from another movie. Carroll informed Huston that if he did not allow Marilyn Monroe another shot at the role, the ranch would sell his stallions and collect the money due. Huston did not refuse the terms, and Monroe got another screen test, only this time she had the support of Louis B. Mayer and MGM chief hair stylist Sydney Guilaroff. When Fox chief Darryl F. Zanuck saw the film, he again assumed her contract.

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Goofs

When Mr. Ciavelli was inside of a long narrow tunnel. He chisels through the thin brick wall of the tunnel and goes inside of a room, and along that same wall is a door leading upstairs. On the other side of the wall, there was no evidence of a door.

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Quotes

Angela Phinlay: What's the big idea standing there staring at me, Uncle Lon?
Alonzo D. Emmerich: Don't call me "Uncle Lon."
Angela Phinlay: I thought you liked it.
Alonzo D. Emmerich: Maybe I did... I don't any more.

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Connections

Referenced in The Usual Suspects (1995)

User Reviews

A Very Human Hooligan

It took over 40 years until Goodfellas was made to make a film interesting and realistic about criminals as The Asphalt Jungle. The power in the characters that John Huston brings to life is so vivid and you root for them, yet you never forget they are criminals.

Sam Jaffe, a cool and calculating planner, brings a scheme to big time lawyer Louis Calhern about a jewel robbery. Calhern is a criminal attorney who really does work both sides of the fence. But he's also got some high living expenses and a young mistress in the shape of Marilyn Monroe in the first film that got her notice.

Jaffe needs three to help pull off the job, a safe cracker, a driver, and a strong arm guy, a 'hooligan' as he calls it. Calhern provides them in the persons of Anthony Caruso, James Whitmore, and Sterling Hayden.

You wouldn't think it, but Jaffe and Hayden bond in this. The educated criminal mastermind and a man who might not have finished grade school. Jaffe sees in Hayden a reliable sort.

Sterling Hayden did not think too much of most of the action/adventure stuff he did, but he liked The Asphalt Jungle as well he should. He's a country kid, his nickname is 'Dix' short for Dixie. His family owned a farm and bad luck hit them as it did so many in The Great Depression. Hayden turns to criminal enterprise because his skills for making an honest living are limited. His biggest accomplishment is having a B girl from a clip joint fall hard for him in the person of Jean Hagen. Both of their characterizations ring well and true, dare I say it, sterling performances.

Of course after the job is done, fallible and corrupt human beings like bookmaker Marc Lawrence, corrupt police lieutenant Barry Kelley, strong arm man Brad Dexter, and Calhern himself bring the whole thing crashing down.

One of the reasons you root so hard for the criminals to succeed is the magnificent and unheralded performance of John McIntire as the police commissioner. Imagine if Charles Laughton as Inspector Javert, had not gotten so tangled up in searching for Jean Valjean and rose to become the head of the Surete in France. You've got McIntire. I don't think any honest cop has been made so unpleasant on the screen before or since. At one point he's telling the press that he'll get Hayden and Hayden is a callous brute. The most callous person in the cast is McIntire and we go through 112 minutes of The Asphalt Jungle and know how very human Sterling Hayden is.

Sam Jaffe got an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, but lost to George Sanders in All About Eve. The film itself got three other nominations including for Huston as Best Director. It had the bad luck to run up against another classic film in All About Eve, in it's own way as cynical a film as The Asphalt Jungle.

John Huston took a cast and got perfect performances out of the lot of them and The Asphalt Jungle holds up every bit over fifty years later. Should really be seen beside Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas to get a full appreciation for today's generation.