- "If you want fresh air, don't look for it in this town." That's how one of the characters describes the urban setting of The Asphalt Jungle, and I can appreciate his point. The unspecified city is portrayed as an absolutely bleak wasteland populated, as the police commissioner points out, by "predatory beasts." It seems like every character with at least two lines spends one of them talking about how dirty the town is, and some of them even have plans to get away from it. If you think they succeed, then you haven't seen nearly enough noir heist films. This is one of the first and one of the best.
- The proposed heist is masterminded by the newly paroled "Doc" Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe), who just wants enough money to escape to Mexico to chase girls in the sunshine. He approaches the neurotic but connected bookie Cobby (Marc Lawrence), who in turn presents the Doc and his scheme to the purportedly wealthy lawyer Emmerich (Louis Calhern). Emmerich agrees to fund the job, although the audience finds out early that he's broke and plans to abscond with the loot. To round out the crew, Doc and Cobby hire the boxman Louis (Anthony Caruso), the driver Gus (James Whitmore), and the gun-toting hooligan Dix Handley (Sterling Hayden). The Doc selects Dix specifically since he seems to have more integrity than your typical hooligan, and the Doc is justifiably worried about Emmerich's role in the caper.
- As far as I can tell, this is really the first film that takes great care to show the intricate details of a heist, and the result is tremendously impressive. In this famous nearly silent scene, the film succeeds in conveying the sensation that the audience is along for the job and allows us to notice the faint sound of external alarms even before the characters do. Needless to say, things do not go exactly according to plan, and the rest of the film involves that omnipresent film noir character, Fate, tying up loose ends. Each crook gets stopped in a different way, in many cases according to their personal vices. In the words of the Doc, it's "blind accidents" that have done them in, and "what can you do against blind accidents?" The Doc's final brush with fate is somewhat humorous, Emmerich's is upsetting, and Dix's is pure tragedy.
- To list everything this film does well would be exhausting, so I'll try to limit my comments to the thing it does best: establishing realistic characters. I've probably listed less than half of the memorable characters in this film, but nearly every player, major and minor alike, comes across as a real human being. Rather than stocking the caper with stereotypical tough guys, Huston gives us the Doc, who reminds me of a criminal version of Wernher von Braun, Cobby, who crumbles into a crying mess after a few slaps, and Dix, who is far from being "a man without human feeling." Additionally and without ever hearing it said, we know that Dix and Doll (Jean Hagen) have a history, and we can probably guess how it went. Likewise, we know that Emmerich used to love his wife, but strayed away over the years, and that Louis puts his family first. It's always nice when heist films are about more than just the heist, but it's even better when the characters and the action are superb and perfect complements.
- I have to mention that this film featured Marilyn Monroe's first serious role, and Strother Martin's and Jack Warden's first film roles. And a dozen other great roles.
