| The Asphalt Jungle | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | John Huston |
| Screenplay by | Ben Maddow John Huston |
| Based on | The Asphalt Jungle (1949 novel) byW. R. Burnett |
| Produced by | Arthur Hornblow Jr. |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Harold Rosson |
| Edited by | George Boemler |
| Music by | Miklós Rózsa |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Loew's Inc. |
Release date |
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Running time | 112 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1.2 million[2][3] |
| Box office | $2.1 million |
The Asphalt Jungle is a 1950 Americanheistfilm noir directed byJohn Huston, from a screenplay co-written withBen Maddow. It starsSterling Hayden,Louis Calhern,Jean Hagen,James Whitmore,Sam Jaffe,John McIntire andMarilyn Monroe in one of her earliest roles.[4] Based on the 1949 novel byW. R. Burnett, it tells the story of a jewel robbery in a Midwestern city.
Produced and distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the film was released on May 12, 1950. It was nominated for fourAcademy Awards, includingBest Director andBest Adapted Screenplay, and Huston won aNational Board of Review Award for his direction. At the1950 Venice Film Festival, Huston was nominated for theGolden Lion and Sam Jaffe won theBest Actor Award.
Retrospective reviews of the film have been highly positive, with several critics describing it as one of the most influential works in thecrime film genre,[5] and one of Huston's best films.[6] The film spawned atelevision series of the same name that aired onABC in 1961.
In 2008,The Asphalt Jungle was selected for preservation in the United StatesNational Film Registry by theLibrary of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[7][8]
When criminal mastermind Erwin "Doc" Riedenschneider is released from prison, he visits abookie named Cobby in an unnamedMidwestern river city. Doc needs $50,000 to hire three men—asafecracker, a driver and ahooligan—to commit a huge jewel robbery. Cobby arranges a meeting between Doc and Alonzo Emmerich, a high-society lawyer and knownfixer. Doc tells Emmerich that the theft will yield half a million dollars or more. Emmerich agrees to front the money and find afence. After they leave, Emmerich finds his young girlfriend Angela asleep on the couch. Private detective Bob Brannom visits Emmerich to collect some debts, but Emmerich is broke and convinces Brannom to help him double-cross the others, proposing a scheme for him to abscond with the gems.
Doc secures Louie Ciavelli as the safecracker. Ciavelli only trusts Gus Minissi, ahunchbacked diner owner, to be thegetaway driver. Last hired is Dix Handley, who tells Doll Conovan, who is in love with him, of his dream to buy the horse farm that his family had lost after a terrible year. To access the jewelry store, Ciavelli hammers through a brick wall, deactivates an alarm to admit Doc and Dix, and usesnitroglycerine to open the safe. However, the explosion triggers several burglar alarms, and Dix slugs a security guard. The guard drops his revolver, which fires, striking Ciavelli in the abdomen. The men escape and a police manhunt begins.
Ciavelli insists that Gus take him home. Ciavelli's wife Maria wants him taken to the hospital, but Gus sends for a trusted but illicit doctor. Doc and Dix arrive at Emmerich's place, but are aware of Emmerich's attempt to stall them. Realizing this, Brannom draws a gun but is killed by Dix, who receives a flesh wound in his side. Doc scolds Emmerich for his foolish plan and tells him to offer the money to the jeweler's insurance company for 25% of its value to avoid suspicion.
Emmerich dumps Brannom's body in the river. The police find the list of debtors on Emmerich's letterhead on the corpse. When they question him, Emmerich claims that he spent the night with his mistress, Angela Phinlay. Corrupt police lieutenant Ditrich—on Cobby's payroll and fearing scrutiny by Police Commissioner Hardy—vainly attempts to save himself from ensnarement by beating Cobby into a confession. Commissioner Hardy arrests Emmerich at Angela's home and threatens her with jail for providing Emmerich with an alibi. When the police allow Emmerich to leave the room to phone his wife, he shoots himself dead.
After Gus is arrested, he attacks Cobby in the jail. The police go to Ciavelli’s to arrest him, but when they forcibly enter, they find his funeral in progress. In Doll's apartment, Doc offers Dix some of the stones, but he refuses. Doll secures a car for Dix and insists on accompanying him. Doc persuades a taxi driver to drive him toCleveland, hours away. They stop at a roadside diner, where Doc becomes entranced by a pretty young woman dancing to thejukebox. Because of the delay, Doc is recognized by two policemen, who arrest him after finding the stolen jewels hidden in his overcoat. Suffering from blood loss, Dix faints at the wheel. He is taken to a doctor, who phones the local police to report a gunshot wound. Dix regains consciousness and escapes.
At a press conference, Hardy notes that three of the seven suspects have died, three others have been arrested and the one on the loose is a hardened killer. Back at the wheel, the rolling green fields ofBluegrass country pass as Dix speaks deliriously. Arriving at his childhood pasture, he collapses. Doll runs for help, while horses gather around him.
The film was an adaptation by directorJohn Huston and screenwriterBen Maddow of the 1949 novel by crime writerW. R. Burnett. It was backed by the major film studioMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where it was greenlighted by production chiefDore Schary over the objections of studio headLouis B. Mayer. From the publication of Burnett's first novelLittle Caesar in 1929, he had written numerous books that were adapted into films shortly after publication. Huston and Maddow wrote the adaptation, which emphasized the crooks' story and reduced thepolice procedural aspect.[1] Burnett was consulted as the shooting script was being written, and he approved the final version.[6] The studio allowed the production a relatively free hand.
Maddow said: "[A] lot of the power [of the film] was due to the fact that these were New York actors who all knew one another and were trying to outdo one another—and who were stimulants to one another. There was nobody who had a name of any consequence... Most of Huston's talent came in the choice of casting, which most directors will tell you anyway, in moments of frankness. It could have been quite a banal film if badly cast. ImagineVan Johnson or somebody else in the leading part! But it was not an important film, so it was easier to cast."[9]
Production forThe Asphalt Jungle took place from October 21, 1949 to late December of that year. Location shooting took place inLexington andKeeneland, Kentucky and inCincinnati, Ohio.[6]
In shooting the film, Huston was influenced by Europeanneorealist films such asOpen City (1945) andBicycle Thieves (1948). He combined the naturalism of neorealism with the stylized look offilm noir and Hollywood crime films.[1] When the film was complete, Mayer said: "It's trash. ThatAsphalt Pavement thing is full of nasty, ugly people doing nasty things. I wouldn't cross the street to see a picture like that."[1][6]
TheProduction Code Administration's main concerns with the script were the detailed depiction of the heist and the fact that the character of the corrupt lawyer Alonzo Emmerich (Louis Calhern) seemed to cheat justice by killing himself.[10] Neither the studio nor the censors interfered significantly with the script, however, and both the heist and the suicide were included in the final cut,[10] although the suicide scene was rewritten. The original scene had Emmerich finishing a suicide note, but in the revised scene, he stalls after writing an endearing salutation to his wife May (Dorothy Tree), crumples the note and become extremely agitated about the decision to kill himself before an abrupt cutaway to an offscreen shot being heard.[6]
Huston's first choice for the breakout role of Angela Phinlay played byMarilyn Monroe wasLola Albright, who was unavailable.[6] Huston invited Monroe to ascreen test and rehearsed for it with her in his office. He did not feel that she was right for the part and dismissed her, but changed his mind when he watched her leave the room. According to film noir authorityEddie Muller, Huston later said that Monroe was "one of the few actresses who could make an entrance by leaving the room."[1]
According to MGM records, the film earned $1,077,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $1,060,000 overseas, resulting in a profit of only $40,000.[2][3]
A contemporary review inPhotoplay stated:
This brutally frank story of crime and punishment in a Midwestern city was directed by two-timeAcademy Award winner, John Huston—son of the lateWalter Huston. John's pictures are usually grim (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre), but always dramatic and exciting. This time he exposes the behind-the-scenes details of the robbery of a jewelry store... This picture is packed with stand-out performances... There's a beautiful blonde, too, name of Marilyn Monroe, who plays Calhern's girl friend, and makes the most of her footage.[citation needed]
TheBrooklyn Eagle's review was highly complimentary: "It's a smash picture....Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern,Sam Jaffe andMarc Lawrence are four standout members of the cast...which has an entirely brilliant lineup of players....It goes off like clockwork, in a series of tense scenes that have the audience clutching their chair arms."[11]
At the time of its releaseThe New York Times said of the film:
Louis Calhern as the big lawyer who tries to pull a double cross and muffs it is exceptionally fluid and adroit and Sterling Hayden is sure-fire as a brazen hoodlum who just wants to go back home. Likewise Sam Jaffe does wonders as a cool-headed mastermind,James Whitmore is taut as a small 'fixer' andJohn McIntire is crisp as a chief of police. But, then, everyone in the picture—which was produced incidentally, by M.G.M.—gives an unimpeachable performance. If only it all weren't so corrupt.[12]
In 1988 theCriterion Collection critic Peter Heath Becker admired Huston's technique:
Through his experience as a painter, [Huston] learned to frame an image, and throughout the film, he uses one shot where other directors might have needed three. He dispenses with editing flourishes and over-dramatic lighting and opts instead for sustained, well-composed shots. By balancing elements in the foreground and background of his images, Huston frames events and responses at once, without cutting between them.[13]
Eddie Muller noted that the film "gave an injection of realism to the postwar crime picture. Instead of the snarling miscreants seen in hundreds of gangster shoot-'em-ups,The Asphalt Jungle offered an underworld of struggling laborers, alienated loners, even honorable family men—in addition to garden-variety leeches and shysters. These were neorealist thieves, after bigger scores than bicycles."[14]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 98% of 40 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "The Asphalt Jungle is an expertly told crime story with attention paid to the crime and characters in equal measure."[15]
Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 85 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[16]
| Institution | Year | Category | Nominee(s) | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | 1951 | Best Director | John Huston | Nominated |
| Best Adapted Screenplay | Ben Maddow, John Huston | Nominated | ||
| Best Actor in a Supporting Role | Sam Jaffe | Nominated | ||
| Best Cinematography – Black-and-white | Harold Rosson | Nominated | ||
| British Academy Film Awards | 1951 | Best Film from any Source | Nominated | |
| Directors Guild of America Award | 1950 | Outstanding Achievement in Feature Film | John Huston | Nominated |
| Edgar Allan Poe Awards | 1951 | Best Motion Picture Screenplay | Ben Maddow, John Huston | Won |
| Golden Globe Award | 1951 | Best Director | John Huston | Nominated |
| Best Cinematography | Harold Rosson | Nominated | ||
| Best Screenplay | Ben Maddow, John Huston | Nominated | ||
| National Board of Review | 1950 | Best Director | John Huston | Won |
| Venice Film Festival | 1950 | Golden Lion | Nominated | |
| Best Actor | Sam Jaffe | Won | ||
| Writers Guild of America Award | 1951 | Best Written Drama | Ben Maddow, John Huston | Nominated |
| Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written Film Concerning American Scene | Nominated | |||
The film spawned a television seriesof the same name starringJack Warden,Arch Johnson andWilliam Smith, which ran for 13 episodes in the spring and summer of 1961 onABC. The series resembled the film in name only, except for one episode, "The Professor", which was constructed as a sequel to the feature film. None of the characters in the film appeared in the television scripts, and the plots were devoted to the exploits of the major case squad of theNew York Police Department. One of the most notable features of the series is the theme song, written byDuke Ellington.[17]
Over timeThe Asphalt Jungle has become to be regarded as one of the more influential crime films of the 1950s.[5] According to theAFI Film Catalog, the film "is widely regarded by film critics as one of John Huston's best."[6]
Burnett's novelThe Asphalt Jungle was the basis of M-G-M's western filmThe Badlanders (1958) directed byDelmer Daves, as well asCairo (1963) starringGeorge Sanders, followed by theblaxploitation filmCool Breeze (1972), directed by Barry Pollack.[6]
The Asphalt Jungle further developed the crime thriller subgenre ofcaper films.[10] The 1955 French filmRififi, which critics such asLeonard Maltin have labeled as the best heist film ever, drew much inspiration fromThe Asphalt Jungle, althoughJules Dassin contended in later years that he did not see the film until after he madeRififi.[5][18]
In 2008,The Asphalt Jungle was selected for preservation in the United StatesNational Film Registry by theLibrary of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
The film was the subject of acolorization lawsuit and controversy in France.Turner Entertainment entered into an agreement with the French television channelLa Cinq, to broadcast the film in artificially colorized form. John Huston's heirs objected and filed a lawsuit. On November 23, 1988,The Asphalt Jungle was prohibited from being broadcast in France. On July 6, 1989, La Cinq won on appeal, broadcasting the film on August 6, 1989. Finally inTurner Entertainment Co. v. Huston, on May 28, 1991, theCourt of Cassation canceled the July 6 judgment, stating that colorizing the film transformed the original artwork enough to potentially transgress the author's moral rights.[19][20]
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