Like THE KILLING made six years later, THE ASPHALT JUNGLE concerns a meticulously planned caper that goes heywire. These aren’t amoral gangsters, but rather proud professionals who have turn to theft out of dire need (one is a proud poppa) and are each undone by chance and individual flaws. Noir star Sterling Hayden plays the gang "hooligan.” Sam Jaffe is the brains – Doc Erwin Riedenschneider – whose desire to make one last score is trumped by his yen for young girls. Louis Calhern is the corrupt lawyer who rationalizes his crimes with the "left-handed form of indeavor" line above. James Whitmore is the gang's hunch-backed driver. John McIntire is the honest, if sanctimonious, police commissioner. Jean Hagen is Sterling's girlfriend. And in one of her earliest screen appearances is young Marilyn Monroe as Calhern's, uh, neice. You'll also spot a boyish-looking Strother Martin in his walk-on film debut. JUNGLE, considered one of the seminal Hollywood noir films, was directed by John Huston, whose debut movie nine years earlier was itself a classic noir – one of the first in the genre – THE MALTESE FALCON. The wonderfully dense and evocative music is by a composer discussed elsewhere on this page, Miklos Rozsa.
THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950)
Crime is only a left-handed of form of human endeavor
Like THE KILLING made six years later, THE ASPHALT JUNGLE concerns a meticulously planned caper that goes heywire. These aren’t amoral gangsters, but rather proud professionals who have turn to theft out of dire need (one is a proud poppa) and are each undone by chance and individual flaws. Noir star Sterling Hayden plays the gang "hooligan.” Sam Jaffe is the brains – Doc Erwin Riedenschneider – whose desire to make one last score is trumped by his yen for young girls. Louis Calhern is the corrupt lawyer who rationalizes his crimes with the "left-handed form of indeavor" line above. James Whitmore is the gang's hunch-backed driver. John McIntire is the honest, if sanctimonious, police commissioner. Jean Hagen is Sterling's girlfriend. And in one of her earliest screen appearances is young Marilyn Monroe as Calhern's, uh, neice. You'll also spot a boyish-looking Strother Martin in his walk-on film debut. JUNGLE, considered one of the seminal Hollywood noir films, was directed by John Huston, whose debut movie nine years earlier was itself a classic noir – one of the first in the genre – THE MALTESE FALCON. The wonderfully dense and evocative music is by a composer discussed elsewhere on this page, Miklos Rozsa.
