This is an amazing film and one that serious film buffs need to see. However, while it is clearly an example of Film Noir, it represents a very realistic style of Noir--lacking the dramatic excesses of some (such as KISS OF DEATH and its wheelchair scene) or super-snappy dialog (like DRAGNET). I actually like all three types of Noir films but when it comes to realism, this film ranks up there with HE WALKED BY NIGHT and T-MEN--and this is certainly good company.

The movie is a step-by-step case study of a crime being organized, executed investigated and resolved. While it could have been shot documentary-style (like a few Noir films, such as NAKED CITY),it was handled like a traditional crime drama except that the focus tended to shift back and forth between the criminals and the police--though the focus tended to be on the criminals a bit more often. This really helped make the movie exciting and worked very well. What also helped the movie was the exceptional acting by mostly unknowns or long-time character actors. Good Noir usually does NOT star big names and having the film anchored by Sterling Hayden (who was amazing),Sam Jaffe and Louis Calhern was an excellent move. To assist them were some other exceptional actors, such as James Whitmore and Marilyn Monroe (in a small but exceptional role).

However, despite the amazing acting, the biggest star of the film was the taut script. From start to finish, it sparkled and abounded with realism and an unflinching message that crime doesn't ultimately pay. The total package is one of the best Noir films ever--only exceeded by a small number of movies (such as my favorite Noir, THE KILLERS). See this film!

By the way, please take a look at the very amazing biography of Sterling Hayden on IMDb. I did and was totally blown away--what an amazing life he led. It all sounded so amazing that if they turned it into a film, many would think it was fiction!!

It took over 40 years until Goodfellas was made to make a film interesting and realistic about criminals as The Asphalt Jungle. The power in the characters that John Huston brings to life is so vivid and you root for them, yet you never forget they are criminals.

Sam Jaffe, a cool and calculating planner, brings a scheme to big time lawyer Louis Calhern about a jewel robbery. Calhern is a criminal attorney who really does work both sides of the fence. But he's also got some high living expenses and a young mistress in the shape of Marilyn Monroe in the first film that got her notice.

Jaffe needs three to help pull off the job, a safe cracker, a driver, and a strong arm guy, a 'hooligan' as he calls it. Calhern provides them in the persons of Anthony Caruso, James Whitmore, and Sterling Hayden.

You wouldn't think it, but Jaffe and Hayden bond in this. The educated criminal mastermind and a man who might not have finished grade school. Jaffe sees in Hayden a reliable sort.

Sterling Hayden did not think too much of most of the action/adventure stuff he did, but he liked The Asphalt Jungle as well he should. He's a country kid, his nickname is 'Dix' short for Dixie. His family owned a farm and bad luck hit them as it did so many in The Great Depression. Hayden turns to criminal enterprise because his skills for making an honest living are limited. His biggest accomplishment is having a B girl from a clip joint fall hard for him in the person of Jean Hagen. Both of their characterizations ring well and true, dare I say it, sterling performances.

Of course after the job is done, fallible and corrupt human beings like bookmaker Marc Lawrence, corrupt police lieutenant Barry Kelley, strong arm man Brad Dexter, and Calhern himself bring the whole thing crashing down.

One of the reasons you root so hard for the criminals to succeed is the magnificent and unheralded performance of John McIntire as the police commissioner. Imagine if Charles Laughton as Inspector Javert, had not gotten so tangled up in searching for Jean Valjean and rose to become the head of the Surete in France. You've got McIntire. I don't think any honest cop has been made so unpleasant on the screen before or since. At one point he's telling the press that he'll get Hayden and Hayden is a callous brute. The most callous person in the cast is McIntire and we go through 112 minutes of The Asphalt Jungle and know how very human Sterling Hayden is.

Sam Jaffe got an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, but lost to George Sanders in All About Eve. The film itself got three other nominations including for Huston as Best Director. It had the bad luck to run up against another classic film in All About Eve, in it's own way as cynical a film as The Asphalt Jungle.

John Huston took a cast and got perfect performances out of the lot of them and The Asphalt Jungle holds up every bit over fifty years later. Should really be seen beside Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas to get a full appreciation for today's generation.

This could very well be a bold statement to make, but I genuinely believe that is so. The Asphalt Jungle is just wonderful, it is shot with documentary realism, and it is an exceptional film. The cinematography is fantastic, the whole film looks so good, and Miklos Rosza's(Spellbound, The Thief of Baghdad) score is superb. The Asphalt Jungle is also brilliantly scripted, very sophisticated and witty, the direction from John Huston is right on the money and the plot is gripping. And the acting is superb, Sam Jaffe is totally convincing as the mastermind, while Sterling Hayden and Anthony Caruso are solid as rocks in their roles and they are superbly supported by Jean Hagen and Marilyn Monroe. Overall, simply exceptional, a must-see. 10/10 Bethany Cox