The Essentials - The Asphalt Jungle
SYNOPSIS:
A stylish, corrupt lawyer,
Alonzo D. Emmerich, puts his money up for an elaborate jewel
heist, hatched by criminal mastermind Doc Riedenschneider and
executed by a crew of career thieves, made up of Dix Handley,
Gus Ninissi, and Louis Ciavelli. But the
meticulous planning for the heist begins to unravel, causing the den of thieves
to spiral towards its ultimate fate.
Producer: Arthur Hornblow, Jr.
Director: John Huston
Screenplay: Ben Maddow, John Huston, from the novel by W. R. Burnett
Cinematography: Harold Rosson
Film Editing: George Boemler
Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons, Randall Duell
Music: Miklos Rozsa
Cast: Sterling Hayden (Dix Handley), Louis Calhern (Alonzo D. Emmerich), Jean Hagen
(Doll Conovan), James Whitmore (Gus Minissi), Sam Jaffe (Doc Riedenschneider), John
McIntire (Police Commissioner Hardy), Marc Lawrence (Cobby), Anthony Caruso (Louis
Ciavelli), Marilyn Monroe (Angela Phinlay), Brad Dexter (Bob Brannom), Dorothy Tree
(May Emmerich).
BW-113m. Closed captioning. Descriptive Video.
Why THE ASPHALT JUNGLE is Essential:
The Asphalt Jungle is a different kind of film noir from John Huston,
director of
The Maltese Falcon (1941) and
Key Largo (1948), two
key entries from the heyday of the classic noir period. Instead of the cramped,
claustrophobic settings of
The Maltese Falcon and
Key Largo,
Huston adopts an open, smooth, and uncluttered style of framing. This is an
ironic gesture, since other films noir, such as
The Stranger on the Third
Floor (1940) and the later
Killer's Kiss (1955), are oppressive and
threatening. But the city is more than an incidental setting of the plot. It
is a crucial element to the story, one that influences the story, the
characters, and how we respond as viewers. Huston understood that the city was, in
a sense, the most important character in the film.
The Asphalt Jungle was also different in that the criminal element is
given human dimensions. Huston not only creates sympathy for the gang, but he
shows respect for the way they do their jobs. Furthermore, instead of painting
them as soulless, murderous brutes, Huston imbues them with human weaknesses,
frailties, and certain aspects of humanity that viewers at the time would not
expect in a movie about criminals. Gone are the uncomplicated, unethical
killers like Tom Powers (James Cagney) of
The Public Enemy (1931) and
Tony Camonte (Paul Muni) of
Scarface (1932). The hoods in
The Asphalt
Jungle are family men, proud professionals who perform their crimes with
proud precision, and essentially good men who happen to steal things. This is a
far cry from the psychotic Cody Jarrett (James Cagney) in the previous year's
White Heat (1949). Additionally, the women in
The Asphalt Jungle
are not femme fatales, dangerous females that the male protagonists of film noir
should usually avoid like a bad habit. Rather, it is the man's obsession with
women that causes his downfall.
"Although MGM did not tamper with it,
The Asphalt Jungle was criticized for
its liberal attitude toward the underworld," wrote film scholar Carlos Clarens in
Crime Movies: An Illustrated History. "In Huston's word: 'My defense...was
that unless we understand the criminal...there's no way of coping with him.' This is
a proposition that Huston conveyed , at its simplest, by having the straights
misconstrue the hoods, their dark-mirror images. 'When I think of all those awful
people you come in contact with, downright criminals, I get scared,' says the
lawyer's crippled wife (Dorothy Tree); to which her husband replies, 'There's
nothing so different about them.'
Today,
The Asphalt Jungle is regarded by film historians and critics as a
seminal movie in the film noir genre and its style and storyline were imitated
repeatedly in a string of crime thrillers that followed in its wake. Among the
remakes it spawned are
The Badlanders (1950), a Western starring Alan Ladd,
Cairo (1962) with George Sanders and
Cool Breeze (1972), a
'blaxploitation' version featuring Thalmus Rasulala. More importantly,
The
Asphalt Jungle garnered three Oscar nominations - for Best Director, Best
Screenplay and Best Cinematography - and gave Marilyn Monroe one of her first
significant roles as the naive mistress of Louis Calhern's crooked lawyer.
by Scott McGee
The Essentials - The Asphalt Jungle
SYNOPSIS:
A stylish, corrupt lawyer,
Alonzo D. Emmerich, puts his money up for an elaborate jewel
heist, hatched by criminal mastermind Doc Riedenschneider and
executed by a crew of career thieves, made up of Dix Handley,
Gus Ninissi, and Louis Ciavelli. But the
meticulous planning for the heist begins to unravel, causing the den of thieves
to spiral towards its ultimate fate.
Producer: Arthur Hornblow, Jr.
Director: John Huston
Screenplay: Ben Maddow, John Huston, from the novel by W. R. Burnett
Cinematography: Harold Rosson
Film Editing: George Boemler
Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons, Randall Duell
Music: Miklos Rozsa
Cast: Sterling Hayden (Dix Handley), Louis Calhern (Alonzo D. Emmerich), Jean Hagen
(Doll Conovan), James Whitmore (Gus Minissi), Sam Jaffe (Doc Riedenschneider), John
McIntire (Police Commissioner Hardy), Marc Lawrence (Cobby), Anthony Caruso (Louis
Ciavelli), Marilyn Monroe (Angela Phinlay), Brad Dexter (Bob Brannom), Dorothy Tree
(May Emmerich).
BW-113m. Closed captioning. Descriptive Video.
Why THE ASPHALT JUNGLE is Essential:
The Asphalt Jungle is a different kind of film noir from John Huston,
director of The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Key Largo (1948), two
key entries from the heyday of the classic noir period. Instead of the cramped,
claustrophobic settings of The Maltese Falcon and Key Largo,
Huston adopts an open, smooth, and uncluttered style of framing. This is an
ironic gesture, since other films noir, such as The Stranger on the Third
Floor (1940) and the later Killer's Kiss (1955), are oppressive and
threatening. But the city is more than an incidental setting of the plot. It
is a crucial element to the story, one that influences the story, the
characters, and how we respond as viewers. Huston understood that the city was, in
a sense, the most important character in the film.
The Asphalt Jungle was also different in that the criminal element is
given human dimensions. Huston not only creates sympathy for the gang, but he
shows respect for the way they do their jobs. Furthermore, instead of painting
them as soulless, murderous brutes, Huston imbues them with human weaknesses,
frailties, and certain aspects of humanity that viewers at the time would not
expect in a movie about criminals. Gone are the uncomplicated, unethical
killers like Tom Powers (James Cagney) of The Public Enemy (1931) and
Tony Camonte (Paul Muni) of Scarface (1932). The hoods in The Asphalt
Jungle are family men, proud professionals who perform their crimes with
proud precision, and essentially good men who happen to steal things. This is a
far cry from the psychotic Cody Jarrett (James Cagney) in the previous year's
White Heat (1949). Additionally, the women in The Asphalt Jungle
are not femme fatales, dangerous females that the male protagonists of film noir
should usually avoid like a bad habit. Rather, it is the man's obsession with
women that causes his downfall.
"Although MGM did not tamper with it, The Asphalt Jungle was criticized for
its liberal attitude toward the underworld," wrote film scholar Carlos Clarens in
Crime Movies: An Illustrated History. "In Huston's word: 'My defense...was
that unless we understand the criminal...there's no way of coping with him.' This is
a proposition that Huston conveyed , at its simplest, by having the straights
misconstrue the hoods, their dark-mirror images. 'When I think of all those awful
people you come in contact with, downright criminals, I get scared,' says the
lawyer's crippled wife (Dorothy Tree); to which her husband replies, 'There's
nothing so different about them.'
Today, The Asphalt Jungle is regarded by film historians and critics as a
seminal movie in the film noir genre and its style and storyline were imitated
repeatedly in a string of crime thrillers that followed in its wake. Among the
remakes it spawned are The Badlanders (1950), a Western starring Alan Ladd,
Cairo (1962) with George Sanders and Cool Breeze (1972), a
'blaxploitation' version featuring Thalmus Rasulala. More importantly, The
Asphalt Jungle garnered three Oscar nominations - for Best Director, Best
Screenplay and Best Cinematography - and gave Marilyn Monroe one of her first
significant roles as the naive mistress of Louis Calhern's crooked lawyer.
by Scott McGee
Pop Culture 101 - The Asphalt Jungle
The Asphalt Jungle marked a departure for director John Huston. As
e
xemplified by his spectacular directorial debut,
The Maltese Falcon
(1941),
Huston rarely took his camera beyond the confines of an interior
setting, whether
it be a shady tenement or a moody police station. With the
The Asphalt
Jungle, Huston now had the story to allow him and his camera
to move out from
under a roof. However, Huston still kept the film behind the
walls at MGM Studios
in Culver City, California. Most of the urban thriller was
filmed there, with the
last scene shot in Lexington, Kentucky.
The menacing
urban environment inspired other filmmakers to actually set and shoot
their
tough little melodramas outside the controlled environment of the studio set.
T
he creators behind films like
Killer's Kiss (1955), and
The Phenix
City
Story (1955) opted for the city or on-location shooting because it was
cheaper
than studio shooting and the reality of on-location lent an immediacy to
the story
being told. Ironically, without having been shot in a real city,
The Asphalt
Jungle showed how city street realism could make a film noir
narrative come
alive with a pervasive sense of menace.
The Asphalt Jungle has influenced a
number of films about elaborately
planned heists, like
The Killing (1957),
also starring Sterling Hayden in
a very similar role. Others include
Ocean's
11 (1960),
Dog Day
Afternoon (1975),
Reservoir Dogs (1992),
Heat (1997), and more
recently,
The Score (2001) and
Heist
(2001).
Another debtor,
The Usual Suspects (1995), even alludes to the line of
dialogue about
crime being a left-handed form of human endeavor. So far, there
have been three
remakes of
The Asphalt Jungle:
The Badlanders
(1958),
Cairo (1963), and
Cool Breeze (1972).
The Asphalt Jungle was not the first W.R. Burnett novel John Huston
adapted
for the screen. In 1941, Huston wrote the screenplay for
High
Sierra, an
adaptation of a Burnett novel and starring Ida Lupino and
Humphrey Bogart.
by Scott McGee
Pop Culture 101 - The Asphalt Jungle
The Asphalt Jungle marked a departure for director John Huston. As
e
xemplified by his spectacular directorial debut, The Maltese Falcon
(1941),
Huston rarely took his camera beyond the confines of an interior
setting, whether
it be a shady tenement or a moody police station. With the
The Asphalt
Jungle, Huston now had the story to allow him and his camera
to move out from
under a roof. However, Huston still kept the film behind the
walls at MGM Studios
in Culver City, California. Most of the urban thriller was
filmed there, with the
last scene shot in Lexington, Kentucky.
The menacing
urban environment inspired other filmmakers to actually set and shoot
their
tough little melodramas outside the controlled environment of the studio set.
T
he creators behind films like Killer's Kiss (1955), and The Phenix
City
Story (1955) opted for the city or on-location shooting because it was
cheaper
than studio shooting and the reality of on-location lent an immediacy to
the story
being told. Ironically, without having been shot in a real city,
The Asphalt
Jungle showed how city street realism could make a film noir
narrative come
alive with a pervasive sense of menace.
The Asphalt Jungle has influenced a
number of films about elaborately
planned heists, like The Killing (1957),
also starring Sterling Hayden in
a very similar role. Others include Ocean's
11 (1960), Dog Day
Afternoon (1975), Reservoir Dogs (1992),
Heat (1997), and more
recently, The Score (2001) and Heist
(2001).
Another debtor,
The Usual Suspects (1995), even alludes to the line of
dialogue about
crime being a left-handed form of human endeavor. So far, there
have been three
remakes of The Asphalt Jungle: The Badlanders
(1958),
Cairo (1963), and Cool Breeze (1972).
The Asphalt Jungle was not the first W.R. Burnett novel John Huston
adapted
for the screen. In 1941, Huston wrote the screenplay for High
Sierra, an
adaptation of a Burnett novel and starring Ida Lupino and
Humphrey Bogart.
by Scott McGee
Trivia - The Asphalt Jungle - Trivia & Fun Facts About THE ASPHALT JUNGLE
Marilyn Monroe's drama coach, Natasha Lytess, stayed by the rising starlet's
side while on the
set of
The Asphalt Jungle. At the end of each take,
Monroe would look to Lytess for
approval. In the finished film, at the end of
her first scene, Monroe can be seen glancing
toward her coach as she walks off-
camera.
One of John Huston's long-time racetrack friends, Benny Burt, was cast in a bit
part as a stool
pigeon.
Photography for
The Asphalt Jungle was by Harold "Hal" Rosson, who
happened to be MGM
star Jean Harlow's last husband.
The Asphalt Jungle was labeled "A John Huston Film,"
the first time
Huston received such prestigious billing in his long career.
John Huston filmed
the robbery sequence with the on-set advice of safecracking
experts in order to ensure
authenticity.
John McIntire, who plays Police Commissioner Hardy in
The Asphalt Jungle,
played another
important law officer ten years later. In director Alfred
Hitchcock's
Psycho (1960),
McIntire played Sheriff Chambers, who
investigates the strange goings-on at the Bates Motel.
Memorable Quotes from THE ASPHALT JUNGLE
Alonzo D. Emmerich: There's nothing so different about them. After all, crime,
my dear, is
merely a left-handed form of human endeavor.
Doc Erwin Riedenschneider: Put in hours and hours of planning. Figure
everything down to the
last detail. Then what? Burglar alarms start going off
all over the place for no sensible
reason. A gun fires of its own accord and a
man is shot. And a broken down old cop, no good
for anything but chasing kids,
has to trip over us. Blind accident. What can you do against
blind accidents?
Doc Erwin Riedenschneider: Hooligans - they're just like left-handed pitchers, all
have a screw
loose somewhere.
Doc Erwin Riedenschneider: One way or another we all pay for our vices.
Angela Phinlay: What
about my trip, Uncle Lon?
Alonzo D. Emmerich: Don't worry,
baby, you'll have plenty of trips.
Dr. Swanson: He hasn't got enough blood left in him to keep a chicken alive.
Police Commissioner Hardy: People are being cheated, robbed, murdered, raped. And that goes on
24 hours a day, every day in the year. And that's not exceptional, that's usual. It's the same
in every city in the modern world. But suppose we had no police force, good or bad. Suppose we
had... just silence. Nobody to listen, nobody to answer. The battle's finished. The jungle wins.
The predatory beasts take over.
Cobby: Here's to the drink habit. It's the only one I got that don't get me into
trouble.
Doc Riedenschneider: One way or another, we all work for our vice.
Dix Handley: Why don't you quit cryin' and get me some bourbon?
by Scott McGee
Trivia - The Asphalt Jungle - Trivia & Fun Facts About THE ASPHALT JUNGLE
Marilyn Monroe's drama coach, Natasha Lytess, stayed by the rising starlet's
side while on the
set of The Asphalt Jungle. At the end of each take,
Monroe would look to Lytess for
approval. In the finished film, at the end of
her first scene, Monroe can be seen glancing
toward her coach as she walks off-
camera.
One of John Huston's long-time racetrack friends, Benny Burt, was cast in a bit
part as a stool
pigeon.
Photography for The Asphalt Jungle was by Harold "Hal" Rosson, who
happened to be MGM
star Jean Harlow's last husband.
The Asphalt Jungle was labeled "A John Huston Film,"
the first time
Huston received such prestigious billing in his long career.
John Huston filmed
the robbery sequence with the on-set advice of safecracking
experts in order to ensure
authenticity.
John McIntire, who plays Police Commissioner Hardy in The Asphalt Jungle,
played another
important law officer ten years later. In director Alfred
Hitchcock's Psycho (1960),
McIntire played Sheriff Chambers, who
investigates the strange goings-on at the Bates Motel.
Memorable Quotes from THE ASPHALT JUNGLE
Alonzo D. Emmerich: There's nothing so different about them. After all, crime,
my dear, is
merely a left-handed form of human endeavor.
Doc Erwin Riedenschneider: Put in hours and hours of planning. Figure
everything down to the
last detail. Then what? Burglar alarms start going off
all over the place for no sensible
reason. A gun fires of its own accord and a
man is shot. And a broken down old cop, no good
for anything but chasing kids,
has to trip over us. Blind accident. What can you do against
blind accidents?
Doc Erwin Riedenschneider: Hooligans - they're just like left-handed pitchers, all
have a screw
loose somewhere.
Doc Erwin Riedenschneider: One way or another we all pay for our vices.Angela Phinlay: What
about my trip, Uncle Lon?
Alonzo D. Emmerich: Don't worry,
baby, you'll have plenty of trips.
Dr. Swanson: He hasn't got enough blood left in him to keep a chicken alive.
Police Commissioner Hardy: People are being cheated, robbed, murdered, raped. And that goes on
24 hours a day, every day in the year. And that's not exceptional, that's usual. It's the same
in every city in the modern world. But suppose we had no police force, good or bad. Suppose we
had... just silence. Nobody to listen, nobody to answer. The battle's finished. The jungle wins.
The predatory beasts take over.
Cobby: Here's to the drink habit. It's the only one I got that don't get me into
trouble.
Doc Riedenschneider: One way or another, we all work for our vice.
Dix Handley: Why don't you quit cryin' and get me some bourbon?
by Scott McGee
The Big Idea - The Asphalt Jungle
John Huston did not conceive of the
The Asphalt Jungle for the screen as
he
had for
The Maltese Falcon (1941) nearly ten years before. Huston was
actually hired to co-script and direct a new screen version of
Quo Vadis, the
penultimate Roman epic, with Gregory Peck, Elizabeth Taylor, and Walter
Huston,
John's father. The younger Huston was not crazy about the idea of a
sand-and-sandals epic, but it happened to be a pet project of MGM's executive in
charge of production, Dore Schary, so Huston did not have much choice.
Huston
earned a reprieve when star Gregory Peck suffered an eye infection and
forced the
production into a prolonged postponement. To keep Huston occupied
while Peck's
infirmity cleared up, Schary assigned the director to
The Asphalt Jungle,
although Huston remembers his initial approach to the
project quite differently.
As he claims in his autobiography, he was not assigned to it, but rather asked to do
The Asphalt Jungle. Huston's
rebellious and stubborn reputation makes his
version of the story more
credulous.
Huston
never did go back to
Quo Vadis (1951), nor did Peck, Taylor, or Walter
Huston. The Roman epic
was eventually directed by Mervyn LeRoy, starring Robert
Taylor, Deborah Kerr, and Peter Ustinov.
by Scott McGee
The Big Idea - The Asphalt Jungle
John Huston did not conceive of the The Asphalt Jungle for the screen as
he
had for The Maltese Falcon (1941) nearly ten years before. Huston was
actually hired to co-script and direct a new screen version of Quo Vadis, the
penultimate Roman epic, with Gregory Peck, Elizabeth Taylor, and Walter
Huston,
John's father. The younger Huston was not crazy about the idea of a
sand-and-sandals epic, but it happened to be a pet project of MGM's executive in
charge of production, Dore Schary, so Huston did not have much choice.
Huston
earned a reprieve when star Gregory Peck suffered an eye infection and
forced the
production into a prolonged postponement. To keep Huston occupied
while Peck's
infirmity cleared up, Schary assigned the director to The Asphalt Jungle,
although Huston remembers his initial approach to the
project quite differently.
As he claims in his autobiography, he was not assigned to it, but rather asked to do
The Asphalt Jungle. Huston's
rebellious and stubborn reputation makes his
version of the story more
credulous.
Huston
never did go back to Quo Vadis (1951), nor did Peck, Taylor, or Walter
Huston. The Roman epic
was eventually directed by Mervyn LeRoy, starring Robert
Taylor, Deborah Kerr, and Peter Ustinov.
by Scott McGee
Behind the Camera - The Asphalt Jungle
When the script for
The Asphalt Jungle was completed, Huston decided to
cast
the film with relative unknowns. Huston first firmed up the role of Doc
with his
old friend Sam Jaffe. Huston also handpicked Louis Calhern, James
Whitmore, Jean
Hagen, and Marc Lawrence, who had played Ziggy, one of the
gangsters in
Key
Largo (1948).
For the lead role of Dix Handley, Huston chose Sterling Hayden, whom the
director
met in Washington, D.C. during a protest against the House of Un-
American
Activities Committee investigation. When the pair met to discuss the
project,
Huston said to Hayden, "I've admired you for a long time, Sterling.
They don't know
what to make of a guy like you in this business." Huston was
honest with Hayden
about his chance for the lead role in
The Asphalt
Jungle. Hayden recounts
in his biography Huston's pitch: "Now, Sterling, I
want you to do this part. The
studio does not. They want a top name star.
They say you mean nothing when it
comes to box office draw-I told them there
aren't five names in this town (that)
mean a damn thing at the box office.
Fortunately, they're not making this picture.
I am. Now let me tell you about
Dix Handley....Dix is you and me and every other
man who can't fit into the
groove." Rumored to be fighting severe alcohol and
psychiatric problems, Hayden
landed Dix Handley, his first major starring role,
over the objection of MGM
executive Dore Schary. Hayden's gritty performance
proved many Hollywood
naysayers flat wrong. For instance, Hayden himself was
nervous about the
climactic scene in the picture, when Dix breaks down in tears in
front of Jean
Hagen. According to the director though, Hayden did not have
anything to worry
about. After the actor delivered the scene beautifully, Huston
took Hayden
aside and said, "The next time somebody says you can't act, tell them
to call
Huston."
Marilyn Monroe was a bit actress under contract to Fox and had not yet had a
s
peaking role; Fox eventually dropped her contract. At least two versions exist
as
to how Monroe came to be cast in MGM's production of
The Asphalt
Jungle.
One version has an employee of MGM's talent department suggesting
that John Huston
try out Monroe for the part of Louis Calhern's mistress, with
Huston immediately
recognizing her as perfect for the role after her sensual
audition. But another
version, as supported by MGM archives, has Monroe as a
"dark horse" contender for
the role. Huston had reportedly already chosen a
blond actress named Lola Albright
for the role. When a very nervous Monroe
auditioned for the part, Huston was not
impressed. But Albright had recently
found success with a supporting role in
Champion (1949), so it was
unlikely she would accept a small role in the
crime melodrama. Huston tested
eight other starlets, but Monroe stayed in the
running, mainly because of the
persistence of MGM talent director, Lucille Ryman
Carroll. Huston remained
adamant that Monroe wouldn't fit the bill, until Carroll
prevailed by taking
advantage of an ironic coincidence.
It turned out that Huston,
an avid
horseman, had a team of Irish stallions boarded and trained at Carroll's
ranch,
and he happened to be $18,000 in arrears for payments to the ranch. On a
Sunday
afternoon in September, Carroll and her husband invited Huston out to the
ranch
and made him an offer he couldn't refuse, to borrow a line from another
movie.
Carroll informed Huston that if he did not allow Monroe another shot at
the
role, the ranch would sell his stallions and collect the money due. Huston did
n
ot refuse the terms, and Monroe got another screen test, only this time, she
had
the support of MGM chief Louis B. Mayer and MGM hair stylist Sidney
Guilaroff.
Monroe got the small role, of which she would eventually regard as
one of her best
performances, particularly the last scene with Calhern. When
Fox chief Darryl F.
Zanuck saw
The Asphalt Jungle, he again assumed her
contract.
The censors had a conniption over Louis Calhern's suicide as written in the
o
riginal script. In the rejected scene, Calhern was to write a short, moving
letter
to his wife, then take a pistol out of his desk and do the deed. While
suicide was
a top no-no on the list of forbidden acts, what made the scene more
objectionable
to the censors was the fact that Calhern's character was
apparently in his right
mind. They reasoned that no man in his right mind would
commit suicide. According
to John Huston, the rewritten suicide in the final
film ironically made for a much
better scene.
During the production of
The Asphalt Jungle, Walter Huston
came to
Hollywood for his son John's forty-fourth birthday party. Two days later,
with
John at his side, the legendary actor of stage and screen, died of heart
failure
at the age of sixty-six.
When
The Asphalt Jungle was being prepared for a British bow, the
producers
hesitated because the film was so full of American slang. At the
time, films heavy
with slang were usually redubbed for English audiences.
Gerard Fairlie, the British
author of the Bulldog Drummond adventure stories,
was called upon as a consultant,
and he advised against redubbing, even though
some words would go right over the
heads of British viewers. The film was not
redubbed and earned boffo box-office in
England.
by Scott McGee
Behind the Camera - The Asphalt Jungle
When the script for The Asphalt Jungle was completed, Huston decided to
cast
the film with relative unknowns. Huston first firmed up the role of Doc
with his
old friend Sam Jaffe. Huston also handpicked Louis Calhern, James
Whitmore, Jean
Hagen, and Marc Lawrence, who had played Ziggy, one of the
gangsters in Key
Largo (1948).
For the lead role of Dix Handley, Huston chose Sterling Hayden, whom the
director
met in Washington, D.C. during a protest against the House of Un-
American
Activities Committee investigation. When the pair met to discuss the
project,
Huston said to Hayden, "I've admired you for a long time, Sterling.
They don't know
what to make of a guy like you in this business." Huston was
honest with Hayden
about his chance for the lead role in The Asphalt
Jungle. Hayden recounts
in his biography Huston's pitch: "Now, Sterling, I
want you to do this part. The
studio does not. They want a top name star.
They say you mean nothing when it
comes to box office draw-I told them there
aren't five names in this town (that)
mean a damn thing at the box office.
Fortunately, they're not making this picture.
I am. Now let me tell you about
Dix Handley....Dix is you and me and every other
man who can't fit into the
groove." Rumored to be fighting severe alcohol and
psychiatric problems, Hayden
landed Dix Handley, his first major starring role,
over the objection of MGM
executive Dore Schary. Hayden's gritty performance
proved many Hollywood
naysayers flat wrong. For instance, Hayden himself was
nervous about the
climactic scene in the picture, when Dix breaks down in tears in
front of Jean
Hagen. According to the director though, Hayden did not have
anything to worry
about. After the actor delivered the scene beautifully, Huston
took Hayden
aside and said, "The next time somebody says you can't act, tell them
to call
Huston."
Marilyn Monroe was a bit actress under contract to Fox and had not yet had a
s
peaking role; Fox eventually dropped her contract. At least two versions exist
as
to how Monroe came to be cast in MGM's production of The Asphalt
Jungle.
One version has an employee of MGM's talent department suggesting
that John Huston
try out Monroe for the part of Louis Calhern's mistress, with
Huston immediately
recognizing her as perfect for the role after her sensual
audition. But another
version, as supported by MGM archives, has Monroe as a
"dark horse" contender for
the role. Huston had reportedly already chosen a
blond actress named Lola Albright
for the role. When a very nervous Monroe
auditioned for the part, Huston was not
impressed. But Albright had recently
found success with a supporting role in
Champion (1949), so it was
unlikely she would accept a small role in the
crime melodrama. Huston tested
eight other starlets, but Monroe stayed in the
running, mainly because of the
persistence of MGM talent director, Lucille Ryman
Carroll. Huston remained
adamant that Monroe wouldn't fit the bill, until Carroll
prevailed by taking
advantage of an ironic coincidence.
It turned out that Huston,
an avid
horseman, had a team of Irish stallions boarded and trained at Carroll's
ranch,
and he happened to be $18,000 in arrears for payments to the ranch. On a
Sunday
afternoon in September, Carroll and her husband invited Huston out to the
ranch
and made him an offer he couldn't refuse, to borrow a line from another
movie.
Carroll informed Huston that if he did not allow Monroe another shot at
the
role, the ranch would sell his stallions and collect the money due. Huston did
n
ot refuse the terms, and Monroe got another screen test, only this time, she
had
the support of MGM chief Louis B. Mayer and MGM hair stylist Sidney
Guilaroff.
Monroe got the small role, of which she would eventually regard as
one of her best
performances, particularly the last scene with Calhern. When
Fox chief Darryl F.
Zanuck saw The Asphalt Jungle, he again assumed her
contract.
The censors had a conniption over Louis Calhern's suicide as written in the
o
riginal script. In the rejected scene, Calhern was to write a short, moving
letter
to his wife, then take a pistol out of his desk and do the deed. While
suicide was
a top no-no on the list of forbidden acts, what made the scene more
objectionable
to the censors was the fact that Calhern's character was
apparently in his right
mind. They reasoned that no man in his right mind would
commit suicide. According
to John Huston, the rewritten suicide in the final
film ironically made for a much
better scene.
During the production of The Asphalt Jungle, Walter Huston
came to
Hollywood for his son John's forty-fourth birthday party. Two days later,
with
John at his side, the legendary actor of stage and screen, died of heart
failure
at the age of sixty-six.
When The Asphalt Jungle was being prepared for a British bow, the
producers
hesitated because the film was so full of American slang. At the
time, films heavy
with slang were usually redubbed for English audiences.
Gerard Fairlie, the British
author of the Bulldog Drummond adventure stories,
was called upon as a consultant,
and he advised against redubbing, even though
some words would go right over the
heads of British viewers. The film was not
redubbed and earned boffo box-office in
England.
by Scott McGee
The Asphalt Jungle
Alonzo D. Emmerich (Louis Calhern), a stylish but corrupt lawyer, bankrolls an elaborate jewel heist masterminded by Doc Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe) and a crew of professional criminals, including Dix Handley (Sterling Hayden), Gus Ninissi (James Whitmore), and Louis Ciavelli (Anthony Caruso). Emmerich, however, plans to double cross the gang as soon as the heist is completed but his strategy fails when Handley murders a private detective hired to sabotage the fencing operation. This action sets off a chain of events which fragments the group and plays havoc with their getaway plans.
The Asphalt Jungle is a different kind of film noir from John Huston, director of
The Maltese Falcon (1941) and
Key Largo (1948), two key entries from the heyday of the classic noir period. Instead of the cramped, claustrophobic settings of
The Maltese Falcon and
Key Largo, Huston adopts an open and uncluttered style of framing the narrative within a realistic urban environment. In its meticulous attention to detail,
The Asphalt Jungle at times has the feel of a documentary and often shares stylistic similarities to the neorealism films of Italy's post-war period. It also uses the setting of a modern metropolis to accent the sense of despair and alienation that runs through the story. In fact, the gritty urban landscape is a crucial element in the film, one that impacts the narrative, the characters, and how we respond as viewers. Huston understood that the city was, in effect, the most important character in the film.
The Asphalt Jungle was also different in that the criminal element is given human dimensions. Huston not only creates sympathy for the gang, but he shows respect for the way they do their jobs. Furthermore, instead of painting them as amoral thugs and murderers, Huston imbues them with human weaknesses, frailties, and idiosyncratic behavior that viewers at the time would not expect in a movie about criminals. Gone are the uncomplicated, unethical killers from former crime thrillers like Tom Powers (James Cagney) of
The Public Enemy (1931) and Tony Camonte (Paul Muni) of
Scarface (1932). The hoods in
The Asphalt Jungle are family men, proud professionals who perform their crimes with precision, and essentially good men who happen to steal things. Additionally, the women in
The Asphalt Jungle are not femme fatales, luring men to their doom. Instead, it is their devotion and commitment to these men which bring them bad luck and misery.
"Although MGM did not tamper with it,
The Asphalt Jungle was criticized for its liberal attitude toward the underworld," wrote film scholar Carlos Clarens in
Crime Movies: An Illustrated History. "In Huston's word: 'My defense...was that unless we understand the criminal...there's no way of coping with him.' This is a proposition that Huston conveyed , at its simplest, by having the straights misconstrue the hoods, their dark-mirror images. 'When I think of all those awful people you come in contact with, downright criminals, I get scared,' says the lawyer's crippled wife (Dorothy Tree); to which her husband replies, 'There's nothing so different about them.'
Today,
The Asphalt Jungle is regarded by film historians and critics as a seminal movie in the film noir genre and its style and storyline were imitated repeatedly in a string of crime thrillers that followed in its wake. Among the remakes it spawned are
The Badlanders (1950), a Western starring Alan Ladd,
Cairo (1962) with George Sanders and
Cool Breeze (1972), a 'blaxploitation' version featuring Thalmus Rasulala. More importantly,
The Asphalt Jungle garnered three Oscar nominations - for Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography - and gave Marilyn Monroe one of her first significant roles as the naive mistress of Louis Calhern's crooked lawyer.
Producer: Arthur Hornblow, Jr.
Director: John Huston
Screenplay: Ben Maddow, John Huston, from the novel by W. R. Burnett
Cinematography: Harold Rosson
Film Editing: George Boemler
Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons, Randall Duell
Music: Miklos Rozsa
Cast: Sterling Hayden (Dix Handley), Louis Calhern (Alonzo D. Emmerich), Jean Hagen (Doll Conovan), James Whitmore (Gus Minissi), Sam Jaffe (Doc Riedenschneider), John McIntire (Police Commissioner Hardy), Marc Lawrence (Cobby), Anthony Caruso (Louis Ciavelli), Marilyn Monroe (Angela Phinlay), Brad Dexter (Bob Brannom), Dorothy Tree (May Emmerich).
BW-113m. Closed captioning. Descriptive Video.
by Scott McGee
The Asphalt Jungle
Alonzo D. Emmerich (Louis Calhern), a stylish but corrupt lawyer, bankrolls an elaborate jewel heist masterminded by Doc Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe) and a crew of professional criminals, including Dix Handley (Sterling Hayden), Gus Ninissi (James Whitmore), and Louis Ciavelli (Anthony Caruso). Emmerich, however, plans to double cross the gang as soon as the heist is completed but his strategy fails when Handley murders a private detective hired to sabotage the fencing operation. This action sets off a chain of events which fragments the group and plays havoc with their getaway plans.
The Asphalt Jungle is a different kind of film noir from John Huston, director of The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Key Largo (1948), two key entries from the heyday of the classic noir period. Instead of the cramped, claustrophobic settings of The Maltese Falcon and Key Largo, Huston adopts an open and uncluttered style of framing the narrative within a realistic urban environment. In its meticulous attention to detail, The Asphalt Jungle at times has the feel of a documentary and often shares stylistic similarities to the neorealism films of Italy's post-war period. It also uses the setting of a modern metropolis to accent the sense of despair and alienation that runs through the story. In fact, the gritty urban landscape is a crucial element in the film, one that impacts the narrative, the characters, and how we respond as viewers. Huston understood that the city was, in effect, the most important character in the film.
The Asphalt Jungle was also different in that the criminal element is given human dimensions. Huston not only creates sympathy for the gang, but he shows respect for the way they do their jobs. Furthermore, instead of painting them as amoral thugs and murderers, Huston imbues them with human weaknesses, frailties, and idiosyncratic behavior that viewers at the time would not expect in a movie about criminals. Gone are the uncomplicated, unethical killers from former crime thrillers like Tom Powers (James Cagney) of The Public Enemy (1931) and Tony Camonte (Paul Muni) of Scarface (1932). The hoods in The Asphalt Jungle are family men, proud professionals who perform their crimes with precision, and essentially good men who happen to steal things. Additionally, the women in The Asphalt Jungle are not femme fatales, luring men to their doom. Instead, it is their devotion and commitment to these men which bring them bad luck and misery.
"Although MGM did not tamper with it, The Asphalt Jungle was criticized for its liberal attitude toward the underworld," wrote film scholar Carlos Clarens in Crime Movies: An Illustrated History. "In Huston's word: 'My defense...was that unless we understand the criminal...there's no way of coping with him.' This is a proposition that Huston conveyed , at its simplest, by having the straights misconstrue the hoods, their dark-mirror images. 'When I think of all those awful people you come in contact with, downright criminals, I get scared,' says the lawyer's crippled wife (Dorothy Tree); to which her husband replies, 'There's nothing so different about them.'
Today, The Asphalt Jungle is regarded by film historians and critics as a seminal movie in the film noir genre and its style and storyline were imitated repeatedly in a string of crime thrillers that followed in its wake. Among the remakes it spawned are The Badlanders (1950), a Western starring Alan Ladd, Cairo (1962) with George Sanders and Cool Breeze (1972), a 'blaxploitation' version featuring Thalmus Rasulala. More importantly, The Asphalt Jungle garnered three Oscar nominations - for Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography - and gave Marilyn Monroe one of her first significant roles as the naive mistress of Louis Calhern's crooked lawyer.
Producer: Arthur Hornblow, Jr.
Director: John Huston
Screenplay: Ben Maddow, John Huston, from the novel by W. R. Burnett
Cinematography: Harold Rosson
Film Editing: George Boemler
Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons, Randall Duell
Music: Miklos Rozsa
Cast: Sterling Hayden (Dix Handley), Louis Calhern (Alonzo D. Emmerich), Jean Hagen (Doll Conovan), James Whitmore (Gus Minissi), Sam Jaffe (Doc Riedenschneider), John McIntire (Police Commissioner Hardy), Marc Lawrence (Cobby), Anthony Caruso (Louis Ciavelli), Marilyn Monroe (Angela Phinlay), Brad Dexter (Bob Brannom), Dorothy Tree (May Emmerich).
BW-113m. Closed captioning. Descriptive Video.
by Scott McGee
Critics' Corner - The Asphalt Jungle
Awards and Honors
The Asphalt Jungle earned a number of Academy Award nominations,
including
Best Screenplay, Best Direction, and Best Supporting Actor (Sam
Jaffe). The film
lost in all categories to
All About Eve (1950). The
black and white
cinematography got a nod, too, but it lost out to
The Third
Man (1950).
Sam Jaffe received the Cannes Award for the Best Performance of the Year for his
j
uicy part in
The Asphalt Jungle.
The Critics' Corner: The Asphalt Jungle
Cue raved that "rarely do crime melodramas come through as nearly perfect
in
writing, direction and performances" as does
The Asphalt Jungle.
The
Hollywood Reporter called it "almost a classic of its type."
Although
The Asphalt Jungle was criticized for its liberal attitude
towards
the underworld,
The New Yorker commented favorably when it wrote
that "in
the end one is tempted to regret that crime doesn't pay, because the
malefactors
are depicted so sympathetically."
The
Variety reviewer wrote that the film was "hard-hitting in its expose of
the underworld. Ironic realism is striven for and achieved in the writing,
production and direction. An audience will quite easily pull for the crooks in their
execution of the million-dollar jewelry theft around which the plot is built."
The film holds up exceedingly today as evidenced by this excerpt from BBC reviewer
Paul Arendt which is typical of most contemporary assessments: "As usual with
Huston, greed and a yearning for the unattainable brings each character to his
downfall...The key to all their aspirations is a bag of gems which, much like the
eponymous statue in Huston's The Maltese Falcon, prove to be unusable. Shot with an
eye for the grimy beauty of the underworld and utterly merciless to its characters,
The Asphalt Jungle is a biting, bitter espresso of a movie."
Darryl F. Zanuck praised MGM's crime melodrama by pinpointing the contribution
of
his future star, Marilyn Monroe. Said Zanuck, "John Huston gave her a hell
of a
good role. Jesus, she was good in it. I thought it must have been the
magic of
Huston because I didn't think she had all that in her. But then I put
her in
All About Eve (1950) and she was an overnight sensation."
Given the fact
that MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer's saccharine taste in
wholesome movie
entertainment was largely out of fashion at the time in
Hollywood, his hatred of
The Asphalt Jungle might be seen as a sort of
compliment. Mayer loved
stories where people sang and danced to the tune of a
happy ending. He was not
amused by stories populated with common thugs. He
told MGM's executive in charge
of production, Dore Schary, "That 'Asphalt
Pavement' thing is full of nasty, ugly
people doing nasty, ugly things. I
wouldn't walk across the room to see a thing
like that." Schary dethroned Mayer
as MGM chief in 1951.
by Scott McGee
Critics' Corner - The Asphalt Jungle
Awards and Honors
The Asphalt Jungle earned a number of Academy Award nominations,
including
Best Screenplay, Best Direction, and Best Supporting Actor (Sam
Jaffe). The film
lost in all categories to All About Eve (1950). The
black and white
cinematography got a nod, too, but it lost out to The Third
Man (1950).
Sam Jaffe received the Cannes Award for the Best Performance of the Year for his
j
uicy part in The Asphalt Jungle.
The Critics' Corner: The Asphalt Jungle
Cue raved that "rarely do crime melodramas come through as nearly perfect
in
writing, direction and performances" as does The Asphalt Jungle.
The
Hollywood Reporter called it "almost a classic of its type."
Although The Asphalt Jungle was criticized for its liberal attitude
towards
the underworld, The New Yorker commented favorably when it wrote
that "in
the end one is tempted to regret that crime doesn't pay, because the
malefactors
are depicted so sympathetically."
The Variety reviewer wrote that the film was "hard-hitting in its expose of
the underworld. Ironic realism is striven for and achieved in the writing,
production and direction. An audience will quite easily pull for the crooks in their
execution of the million-dollar jewelry theft around which the plot is built."
The film holds up exceedingly today as evidenced by this excerpt from BBC reviewer
Paul Arendt which is typical of most contemporary assessments: "As usual with
Huston, greed and a yearning for the unattainable brings each character to his
downfall...The key to all their aspirations is a bag of gems which, much like the
eponymous statue in Huston's The Maltese Falcon, prove to be unusable. Shot with an
eye for the grimy beauty of the underworld and utterly merciless to its characters,
The Asphalt Jungle is a biting, bitter espresso of a movie."
Darryl F. Zanuck praised MGM's crime melodrama by pinpointing the contribution
of
his future star, Marilyn Monroe. Said Zanuck, "John Huston gave her a hell
of a
good role. Jesus, she was good in it. I thought it must have been the
magic of
Huston because I didn't think she had all that in her. But then I put
her in
All About Eve (1950) and she was an overnight sensation."
Given the fact
that MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer's saccharine taste in
wholesome movie
entertainment was largely out of fashion at the time in
Hollywood, his hatred of
The Asphalt Jungle might be seen as a sort of
compliment. Mayer loved
stories where people sang and danced to the tune of a
happy ending. He was not
amused by stories populated with common thugs. He
told MGM's executive in charge
of production, Dore Schary, "That 'Asphalt
Pavement' thing is full of nasty, ugly
people doing nasty, ugly things. I
wouldn't walk across the room to see a thing
like that." Schary dethroned Mayer
as MGM chief in 1951.
by Scott McGee
Marc Lawrence (1910-2005)
With his sharp glare, pockmarked cheeks, clipped speech pattern and menacing air, Marc Lawrence had certainly carved a reputation for himself as one of the screen's finest character actors for villainous
roles. Lawrence, whose career was harmed by the
Hollywood blacklist in the '50s, died of natural causes on November 27 at his home in Palm Springs. He was 95.
Born Max Goldsmith on February 17, 1910, in the Bronx, Lawrence had his heart set on a career in drama right out of high school. He enrolled at City College of New York to study theatre, and in 1930, he worked under famed stage actress Eva Le Gallienne. Anxious for a career in movies, Lawrence moved to Hollywood in
1932 and found work immediately as a contract player with Warner Bros. (an ideal studio for the actor since they specialized in crime dramas). He was cast as a heavy in his first film,
If I Had a Million (1932). Although his first few parts were uncredited, Lawrence's roles grew more prominent: a sinister henchman in the Paul Muni vehicle in
Dr.
Socrates (1935); a conniving convict aiding Pat O'Brien in
San Quentin (1937); a menacing thug stalking Dorothy Lamour in
Johnny Apollo (1940); the shrewdly observant chauffeur in Alan Ladd's breakthrough hit
This Gun For Hire (1942); and one of his most memorable roles as Ziggy, a fedora wearing mobster in the Bogart-Bacall noir classic
Key Largo (1948).
Lawrence, when given the opportunity, could play against type: as the prosecuting attorney challenging Tyrone Power in
Brigham Young (1940); a noble aristocrat in the Greer Garson-Walter Pidgeon period opus
Blossoms in the Dust; and most impressively, as a deaf mute simpleton in the rustic drama
The Shepherd of the Hills (both 1941).
Better still was Lawrence's skill at comedy, where his deadpan toughness worked terrifically as a straight man against the likes of Joe E. Brown in
Beware Spooks (1939); Abbott and Costello in
Hit the Ice (1943); Penny Singleton in
Life with Blondie (1945); and Bob Hope in
My Favorite Spy (1951).
After that, Lawrence's career took a turn downward spin when he was labeled a communist sympathizer during the Hollywood witch hunts of the early '50s.
He was exiled in Europe for a spell (1951-59), and when he came back, the film industry turned a blind eye to him, but television overcompensated for that. Here he played effective villains (what else?) in a series of crime caper programs:
Peter Gunn,
Johnny Staccato,
The Untouchables,
Richard Diamond, Private Detective; and eventually made a welcome return to the big screen as a returning exiled gangster in William Asher's underrated mob thriller
Johnny Cool (1963).
It wasn't long before Lawrence found himself back in the fray playing in some big box-office hits over the next two decades:
Diamonds Are Forever (1971),
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974),
Marathon Man (1976),
Foul Play (1978); and
The Big Easy (1987). Sure he was cast as a gangster, but nobody could play a rough and tumble mob boss with more style or conviction.
Interestingly, one of his finest performances in recent years was in television, as a severely ill old man unwilling to accept his fate in a fourth season episode of
ER (1997-98). His last screen role was just two years ago, as a nimble minded VP in
Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003).
In 1991, Lawrence published a memoir about his venerable career,
Long Time No See: Confessions of a Hollywood Gangster that received much critical acclaim. He has also developed a cult following due to his appearances in such offbeat items as
From Dusk to Dawn and
Pigs aka
Daddy's Deadly Darling, the 1972 horror film he directed and starred in with his daughter Toni. He is survived by his wife, Alicia; two children from a previous marriage, Toni and Michael; and a stepdaughter Marina.
by Michael T. Toole
Marc Lawrence (1910-2005)
With his sharp glare, pockmarked cheeks, clipped speech pattern and menacing air, Marc Lawrence had certainly carved a reputation for himself as one of the screen's finest character actors for villainous
roles. Lawrence, whose career was harmed by the
Hollywood blacklist in the '50s, died of natural causes on November 27 at his home in Palm Springs. He was 95.
Born Max Goldsmith on February 17, 1910, in the Bronx, Lawrence had his heart set on a career in drama right out of high school. He enrolled at City College of New York to study theatre, and in 1930, he worked under famed stage actress Eva Le Gallienne. Anxious for a career in movies, Lawrence moved to Hollywood in
1932 and found work immediately as a contract player with Warner Bros. (an ideal studio for the actor since they specialized in crime dramas). He was cast as a heavy in his first film, If I Had a Million (1932). Although his first few parts were uncredited, Lawrence's roles grew more prominent: a sinister henchman in the Paul Muni vehicle in Dr.
Socrates (1935); a conniving convict aiding Pat O'Brien in San Quentin (1937); a menacing thug stalking Dorothy Lamour in Johnny Apollo (1940); the shrewdly observant chauffeur in Alan Ladd's breakthrough hit This Gun For Hire (1942); and one of his most memorable roles as Ziggy, a fedora wearing mobster in the Bogart-Bacall noir classic Key Largo (1948).
Lawrence, when given the opportunity, could play against type: as the prosecuting attorney challenging Tyrone Power in Brigham Young (1940); a noble aristocrat in the Greer Garson-Walter Pidgeon period opus Blossoms in the Dust; and most impressively, as a deaf mute simpleton in the rustic drama The Shepherd of the Hills (both 1941).
Better still was Lawrence's skill at comedy, where his deadpan toughness worked terrifically as a straight man against the likes of Joe E. Brown in Beware Spooks (1939); Abbott and Costello in Hit the Ice (1943); Penny Singleton in Life with Blondie (1945); and Bob Hope in My Favorite Spy (1951).
After that, Lawrence's career took a turn downward spin when he was labeled a communist sympathizer during the Hollywood witch hunts of the early '50s.
He was exiled in Europe for a spell (1951-59), and when he came back, the film industry turned a blind eye to him, but television overcompensated for that. Here he played effective villains (what else?) in a series of crime caper programs: Peter Gunn, Johnny Staccato, The Untouchables, Richard Diamond, Private Detective; and eventually made a welcome return to the big screen as a returning exiled gangster in William Asher's underrated mob thriller Johnny Cool (1963).
It wasn't long before Lawrence found himself back in the fray playing in some big box-office hits over the next two decades: Diamonds Are Forever (1971), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Marathon Man (1976), Foul Play (1978); and The Big Easy (1987). Sure he was cast as a gangster, but nobody could play a rough and tumble mob boss with more style or conviction.
Interestingly, one of his finest performances in recent years was in television, as a severely ill old man unwilling to accept his fate in a fourth season episode of ER (1997-98). His last screen role was just two years ago, as a nimble minded VP in Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003).
In 1991, Lawrence published a memoir about his venerable career, Long Time No See: Confessions of a Hollywood Gangster that received much critical acclaim. He has also developed a cult following due to his appearances in such offbeat items as From Dusk to Dawn and Pigs aka Daddy's Deadly Darling, the 1972 horror film he directed and starred in with his daughter Toni. He is survived by his wife, Alicia; two children from a previous marriage, Toni and Michael; and a stepdaughter Marina.
by Michael T. Toole
The Film Noir Collection - 5 Classics on DVD
Film noir is a style, a mood, an attitude - but not a genre. No one in the 1940s ever said, "Let's go make a film noir." (It has since
become a genre, but today's "noirs" are something quite different.) Instead, the noir attitude set the tone for movies in a wide variety of genres in the '40s and '50s, many of which fell into the broad category of urban crime dramas - though there also exist noir westerns, women's films and even musicals. You won't find any westerns or musicals in Warner Home Video's new 5-disc set, but you will find five noir films that represent a mix of urban genres: the heist film (
The Asphalt Jungle), the boxing picture (
The Set-Up), the bank robber story (
Gun Crazy), and the private-eye film (
Murder, My Sweet and
Out of the Past). What unites them are the feelings of oppression, confusion and fatalism created by intricate storylines and dazzling black-and-white lighting. They bring us into the underworld and in different, stylish ways make us feel very strongly what it's like to be there. Each picture is a truly great one, and all are presented here in good, clean prints. In fact, this is the rare multi-title set that contains not one dud.
The Asphalt Jungle (1950), with its tough, evocative dialogue and beautifully textured characters, hasn't aged a bit. It's pure noir, and one of the great heist films of all time. A superb cast including Sam Jaffe, Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern and James Whitmore plans a jewel robbery in methodical detail, and then we watch in methodical detail as it goes awry and each man meets his fate. John Huston, Oscar®-nominated for script and direction, brings much more to it that that, however, making us feel the alienation of the characters in a hostile world. It's a tour de force for all involved. Marilyn Monroe, in one of her earliest screen appearances, is sinewy and sensual, and a good deal of this effect is thanks to the way Huston positions her in the frame, dresses her, and lights her. As USC film professor Drew Casper points out in his commentary track, it's a type of glamour and sex appeal that is distinctly post-WWII and distinctly MGM. In fact, it may be the only thing that's distinctly MGM about the entire picture! MGM was never a studio associated with dark crime dramas and shadowy lighting, though it did produce a few noirs - more, in fact, than most people remember, such as
Border Incident (1949),
Force of Evil (1948),
Side Street (1949), and
Undercurrent (1946).
Murder, My Sweet (1945) takes a few minutes of getting used to if all you've ever seen Dick Powell do is sing and dance. Here, he plays Philip Marlowe. Yes, that Philip Marlowe. Powell is tough and hard-boiled as Chandler's famous detective, and he pulls it off extremely well, delivering brilliantly sarcastic dialogue with confidence. Chandler himself called Powell his favorite screen Marlowe. Every scene is set at night, making
Murder, My Sweet one of the expressionistic archetypes of the noir style. Director Edward Dmytryk would make two more important noirs soon thereafter:
Cornered (1945) and
Crossfire (1947).
The Set-Up (1949), with a script based on a long narrative poem, is one of the great boxing films in an era in which there were many, such as the noir
Body and Soul (1947) and the marginally noir
Champion (1949). Told in real time, the 72-minute film is also set entirely at night, and rarely has a film captured a sense of fatalism and doom as strongly as this one. Robert Ryan plays Stoker, an over-the-hill, so-so fighter who is determined to win one big fight on his way out. What he doesn't know at first is that the fight has been fixed, and not in his favor; if he doesn't play along, he will suffer severely afterwards. Ryan got the part because he was the only actor under contract at RKO who had actually been a boxer (in college), and he is superb as always - not just in the fight scenes, which are brutally realistic, but in sequences which call on his gift for expressing deep vulnerability. Audrey Totter as his girlfriend is equally effective and turns in one of the best performances of her career. This was one of Robert Wise's early credits as director, and his previous career as an editor is on great display throughout, especially in a memorable sequence where Totter stands on an overpass watching buses drive underneath.
Gun Crazy (1950) is one of the best B-films of all time. Director Joseph Lewis's low-budget masterpiece is a model of economy and style, never more evident than in the famous one-shot bank robbery sequence filmed from the back seat of a car. It's a shot - and a sequence - unlike anything else of the time. John Dall and Peggy Cummins are a Bonnie and Clyde-type couple who "go together like guns and ammunition," and the linking of sexuality and violence gives
Gun Crazy a unique and fascinating edge.
All four of these films are wonderful, but my personal favorite has to be
Out of the Past (1947), which is
finally making its debut on DVD. The quintessential private detective film noir and one of the greatest movies ever to come out of the Hollywood studio system, it just gets better with repeated viewings. It's the kind of movie one thinks of when "film noir" is mentioned. It has a tough antihero in Robert Mitchum, a classic femme fatale in luscious Jane Greer, a meshing of sex and violence, hardboiled dialogue, stunning black and white lighting, and a confusing storyline complete with a flashback set in a world of mobsters. It all comes together to create a strong fatalistic sense that these characters are doomed and they're going down in a dark, ominous world. It's also a layered and poetic picture, visually and emotionally. Jacques Tourneur, who started out directing low-budget Val Lewton horror films like
Cat People, brought this type of style to most of the films he made, and
Out of the Past is certainly his greatest. Mitchum and Greer are at their peaks, Kirk Douglas is enjoyable in just his second film, and the movie is pure pleasure.
Warner Home Video has delivered these pictures in exceptional transfers with little wear.
The Set-Up in particular looks a lot better than its TV airings have looked over the years, and the rich shadows of
Murder My Sweet and
Out of the Past are well-served by the DVD medium. Each disc comes with a commentary track by a film historian except for
The Set-Up, which has commentary from Robert Wise and Martin Scorsese, a huge fan of the film. Their comments were recorded separately, and the track jumps back and forth between the two. 89-year-old Wise unfortunately offers little that is insightful, but Scorsese is riveting, speaking of the "hyper-naturalism" of the movie and excitedly describing it as "compact and tough and lean, like a fighter. You feel the immediacy of what's happening." He goes on to explain how
The Set-Up influenced his own
Raging Bull (1980), and the visual similarities are indeed startling.
The Asphalt Jungle's commentary also includes archival oral interviews with star James Whitmore, who was Oscar®-nominated and whose comments are articulate, thoughtful, and definitely worth a listen. Other extras are a couple of trailers and John Huston delivering a brief intro to
The Asphalt Jungle.
For more information about the
Film Noir Classic Collection, visit
Warner Video. To order the
Film Noir Classic Collection, go to
TCM Shopping.
by Jeremy Arnold
The Film Noir Collection - 5 Classics on DVD
Film noir is a style, a mood, an attitude - but not a genre. No one in the 1940s ever said, "Let's go make a film noir." (It has since become a genre, but today's "noirs" are something quite different.) Instead, the noir attitude set the tone for movies in a wide variety of genres in the '40s and '50s, many of which fell into the broad category of urban crime dramas - though there also exist noir westerns, women's films and even musicals. You won't find any westerns or musicals in Warner Home Video's new 5-disc set, but you will find five noir films that represent a mix of urban genres: the heist film (The Asphalt Jungle), the boxing picture (The Set-Up), the bank robber story (Gun Crazy), and the private-eye film (Murder, My Sweet and Out of the Past). What unites them are the feelings of oppression, confusion and fatalism created by intricate storylines and dazzling black-and-white lighting. They bring us into the underworld and in different, stylish ways make us feel very strongly what it's like to be there. Each picture is a truly great one, and all are presented here in good, clean prints. In fact, this is the rare multi-title set that contains not one dud.
The Asphalt Jungle (1950), with its tough, evocative dialogue and beautifully textured characters, hasn't aged a bit. It's pure noir, and one of the great heist films of all time. A superb cast including Sam Jaffe, Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern and James Whitmore plans a jewel robbery in methodical detail, and then we watch in methodical detail as it goes awry and each man meets his fate. John Huston, Oscar®-nominated for script and direction, brings much more to it that that, however, making us feel the alienation of the characters in a hostile world. It's a tour de force for all involved. Marilyn Monroe, in one of her earliest screen appearances, is sinewy and sensual, and a good deal of this effect is thanks to the way Huston positions her in the frame, dresses her, and lights her. As USC film professor Drew Casper points out in his commentary track, it's a type of glamour and sex appeal that is distinctly post-WWII and distinctly MGM. In fact, it may be the only thing that's distinctly MGM about the entire picture! MGM was never a studio associated with dark crime dramas and shadowy lighting, though it did produce a few noirs - more, in fact, than most people remember, such as Border Incident (1949), Force of Evil (1948), Side Street (1949), and Undercurrent (1946).
Murder, My Sweet (1945) takes a few minutes of getting used to if all you've ever seen Dick Powell do is sing and dance. Here, he plays Philip Marlowe. Yes, that Philip Marlowe. Powell is tough and hard-boiled as Chandler's famous detective, and he pulls it off extremely well, delivering brilliantly sarcastic dialogue with confidence. Chandler himself called Powell his favorite screen Marlowe. Every scene is set at night, making Murder, My Sweet one of the expressionistic archetypes of the noir style. Director Edward Dmytryk would make two more important noirs soon thereafter: Cornered (1945) and Crossfire (1947).
The Set-Up (1949), with a script based on a long narrative poem, is one of the great boxing films in an era in which there were many, such as the noir Body and Soul (1947) and the marginally noir Champion (1949). Told in real time, the 72-minute film is also set entirely at night, and rarely has a film captured a sense of fatalism and doom as strongly as this one. Robert Ryan plays Stoker, an over-the-hill, so-so fighter who is determined to win one big fight on his way out. What he doesn't know at first is that the fight has been fixed, and not in his favor; if he doesn't play along, he will suffer severely afterwards. Ryan got the part because he was the only actor under contract at RKO who had actually been a boxer (in college), and he is superb as always - not just in the fight scenes, which are brutally realistic, but in sequences which call on his gift for expressing deep vulnerability. Audrey Totter as his girlfriend is equally effective and turns in one of the best performances of her career. This was one of Robert Wise's early credits as director, and his previous career as an editor is on great display throughout, especially in a memorable sequence where Totter stands on an overpass watching buses drive underneath.
Gun Crazy (1950) is one of the best B-films of all time. Director Joseph Lewis's low-budget masterpiece is a model of economy and style, never more evident than in the famous one-shot bank robbery sequence filmed from the back seat of a car. It's a shot - and a sequence - unlike anything else of the time. John Dall and Peggy Cummins are a Bonnie and Clyde-type couple who "go together like guns and ammunition," and the linking of sexuality and violence gives Gun Crazy a unique and fascinating edge.
All four of these films are wonderful, but my personal favorite has to be Out of the Past (1947), which is finally making its debut on DVD. The quintessential private detective film noir and one of the greatest movies ever to come out of the Hollywood studio system, it just gets better with repeated viewings. It's the kind of movie one thinks of when "film noir" is mentioned. It has a tough antihero in Robert Mitchum, a classic femme fatale in luscious Jane Greer, a meshing of sex and violence, hardboiled dialogue, stunning black and white lighting, and a confusing storyline complete with a flashback set in a world of mobsters. It all comes together to create a strong fatalistic sense that these characters are doomed and they're going down in a dark, ominous world. It's also a layered and poetic picture, visually and emotionally. Jacques Tourneur, who started out directing low-budget Val Lewton horror films like Cat People, brought this type of style to most of the films he made, and Out of the Past is certainly his greatest. Mitchum and Greer are at their peaks, Kirk Douglas is enjoyable in just his second film, and the movie is pure pleasure.
Warner Home Video has delivered these pictures in exceptional transfers with little wear. The Set-Up in particular looks a lot better than its TV airings have looked over the years, and the rich shadows of Murder My Sweet and Out of the Past are well-served by the DVD medium. Each disc comes with a commentary track by a film historian except for The Set-Up, which has commentary from Robert Wise and Martin Scorsese, a huge fan of the film. Their comments were recorded separately, and the track jumps back and forth between the two. 89-year-old Wise unfortunately offers little that is insightful, but Scorsese is riveting, speaking of the "hyper-naturalism" of the movie and excitedly describing it as "compact and tough and lean, like a fighter. You feel the immediacy of what's happening." He goes on to explain how The Set-Up influenced his own Raging Bull (1980), and the visual similarities are indeed startling. The Asphalt Jungle's commentary also includes archival oral interviews with star James Whitmore, who was Oscar®-nominated and whose comments are articulate, thoughtful, and definitely worth a listen. Other extras are a couple of trailers and John Huston delivering a brief intro to The Asphalt Jungle.
For more information about the Film Noir Classic Collection, visit Warner Video. To order the Film Noir Classic Collection, go to
TCM Shopping.
by Jeremy Arnold
