The Asphalt Jungle

Based on the titular 1949 novel by W.R. Burnett, filmmaker John Huston's 1950 crime classic The Asphalt Jungle essentially launched and set the blueprint for the heist film genre. Sterling Hayden stars as Dix, a former country boy turned angry urban thug hired to be the muscle in a crew that is put together by heist mastermind Doc (Sam Jaffe), who has just been sprung from prison and has plans for a massive jewelry robbery that he's been waiting for years to put into action. Louis Calhern plays the smug, corrupt lawyer who finances the operation and plots a double-cross, Jean Hagen is heartbreaking as the hard-luck dancehall girl who loves the doomed Dix, a young and breathy Marilyn Monroe sparkles as Calhern's callow mistress, and Doc's team is filled out by getaway man James Whitmore and safecracker Anthony Caruso. Huston directs with the lean, unsentimental steeliness that defines his best movies—from the meticulous details of the heist (executed in a largely wordless sequence) to the unanticipated complications and betrayals that sabotage the "perfect crime." The Asphalt Jungle is a model of elegant construction, street-level tragedy, and poetic justice, a film that both embraces the romance of the criminal code and acknowledges the mercenary impulses of outsiders and upstarts who have no code. Restored for this Criterion release, extras include audio commentary by film historian Drew Casper (featuring archival recordings of Whitmore), new interviews with film noir historian Eddie Muller and cinematographer John Bailey, archival interviews with Huston, a 1983 documentary feature on Hayden, and an essay by critic Geoffrey O'Brien. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (S. Axmaker)