A Dash of Film Noir: The Asphalt Jungle

What’s going on teen gang and welcome back to Day 3 of A Dash of Film Noir Week.   Apparently I cannot stay away from the Sterling Hayden films as I am about to review a directorial from John Huston (The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Red Badge of Courage, The African Queen, Fat City and The Man Who Would Be King) movie now.  Full of capers, heists, double crosses and a bit of gun play.  So put up some scratch, get the gear and let’s make this gig go like clockwork.  This is The Asphalt Jungle.

Got your swag here, Mac but you know my price.

May Emmerich: Oh Spoiler, when I think of all those awful people you come in contact with –downright criminals-  I get scared.

Alonzo D. Emmerich: Oh, there’s nothing so different about them. After all, crime is only… a left-handed form of human behavior.

Doc Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe of Gunga Din, 13 Rue Madeleine, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Ben-Hur and Ben Casey) is out of the clink after a seven year stretch when he heads to a Midwestern town that looks a bit like Cincinnati but is never named to a bookie named Cobby (Mark Lawrence of Helen of Troy, Kill Her Gently, The Detectives, The Untouchables, Johnny Cool and Johnny Tiger) to arrange a pow wow with a lawyer named Emmerich (Louis Calhern of Duck Soup, Notorious, Julius Caesar, Blackboard Jungle and Forever, Darling) to put enough cabbage together to hire a crew to steal jewelry that totals over a million buckaroos. 

HellOoOOoOooOO Niece!

Doc needs 50 large to get him a safe cracker, a wheel man and a thug.  Emmerich agrees to front cash for the heist and then nonchalantly what fences he would use if he were a criminal.  Doc snags a safe cracker name of Louie Ciavelli (Anthony Caruso of Watch on the Rhine, A Gun in His Hand, Baby Face Nelson and Death Feud) a pro but cautious fellow that never works without some people he can trust and recommends Gus Minissi (character actor James Whitmore of The Law and Mr. Jones, Planet of the Apes, Chuka, The Shawshank Redemption and The Relic) as their getaway driver and lastly Dix Handley (Sterling Hayden of The Killing, Dr. Strangelove, The Godfather and Deadly Strangers) a strong arm with a whole lot of attitude.

And now I had just a few comments to be made here.  With the intricate planning and heist in play you have an intense scene over 11 minutes long.  No cutaways but a slight fade to progress time and each character looks like they have been through the wringer.  Hayden’s hard guy performance switches so many gears from the thug with the gun to the man that would do anything for his gal.  I started laughing when Mark Lawrence hit the screen because the only other character I know he has done is Ziggy from Key Largo. 

The biggest attention grabber of this movie is still Doll Conovan (Jean Hagen of Adam’s Rib, Singin’ in the Rain and The Shaggy Dog).  This lady must cling to the spotlight opposite young Marilyn Monroe and they both bring their a game in their scenes it was amazing.   Make no mistake here people this film is all Sam Jaffe but his supporting cast was astounding.  Oh and FYI, no musical score during the whole heist which for me gives a better element of realism.  Today we would be slammed with techno or hip hop with the score is going down.

This guy makes loan sharks seem warm and cuddly.