+4
The Asphalt Jungle
“I never trust cops. Just when you think one is swell, he decides to go legit.”
Wise words. The Asphalt Jungle starts off introducing the characters to who we know are almost doomed from the start. Such is the life of crime, after al. If you aren’t lucky enough to get out of the life on your own terms, you either end up dead or behind bars. Yet they go through with it, knowing the risks.
Which sets up The Asphalt Jungle The first 40 minutes introduce us the characters who will be pulling bf a job with a huge payoff. There the hooligan Dix, The safe cracker Ciavelli, and the getaway driver Gus.
Of the three, only Dix, played by Sterling Hayden isn’t well cast. Hayden seems limited as an actor in his two films I’ve seen so far, and he Is mostly effective when he’s standing around being menacing. Only a few lines are delivered satisfactory.
This films really picks up, during and after the robbery where greed and desperation takes overs and the Robbers find themselves on the run. There is a scene that I particularly loved when they have emptied the vault and are walking away and the bars slam shut behind them, like a prison. It is both simple, and effective and foreshadows the outcome. Their fate is sealed.
(Shout out to Brad Dexter as a private detective who makes the most of his all too brief scenes!).
It’s interesting to see how a few are brought down. Emmerich, a lawyer, is undone by his much younger mistress (Marilyn Monroe in an early role) who’s unable to provide him the alibi he needs. Doc is brought down by his listing after a much younger girl as well, insisting on playing music for her to dance to.
As the the films winds down after double cross after double cross, all the players are brought down. Some die, others end up behind bars. None bothered to entertain the possibility of just leaving the life. Except for Dix. He just wanted to buy his family farmhouse back. But to do so, he needed one last score. His ending is all the more tragic for it. Such is the life.
Yet another great film in a HOF stuffed with them.
*as an aside, has anyone figured out exactly what city this is set in? I’ve read the theory is Cincinnati, but nothing ever concrete as far as I’ve seen
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I didn't find her attractive and that's because she didn't seem to have much personality in the film. I'd say Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemity is much hotter and she's not even really pretty in any Hollywood sorta way, but she's got an inner spark and that's what counts.
