Asphalt Jungle

Year: 1950

Grade: B+

Country: USA

Director: Huston

Review

so yesterday i saw the set-up which was directed by the guy who did The Day The Earth Stood Still and today i saw the asphalt jungle which co-starred sam jaffe who was in The Day The Earth Stood Still…i like it when those things happen unexpectedly because it means i’m more likely to remember these people. “crime is only a left-handed form of human endeavor.” “Experience has taught me never to trust a policeman. Just when you think one’s all right, he turns legit.” “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.” though the script isn’t as good as the one for “double indemnity,” this film clearly has some great lines – some are just clever or funny and some encapsulate the noir-aesthetic perfectly. i also like the one from “out of the past” that goes like this: “[Kathie is playing roulette] Jeff Bailey: That’s not the way to win. Kathie Moffat: Is there a way to win? Jeff Bailey: There’s a way to lose more slowly.” but back to this film…asphalt jungle is an undeniable classic and it’s easy to see why. i don’t think that in 1950 it set any great new standards, but it synthesized a lot of aspects of the genre really well…it’s got the heist, the femme fatale (more than one really), the philosophy is perfect, some of the shots are wonderfully noir, the script is great, it incorporates both newspaper men and a private investigator (both noir staples) and does it all seamlessly and in an entertaining manner. john huston is one of those directors with a sickening portfolio (in chronological order): maltese falcon, treasure of the sierra madre, key largo, asphalt jungle, african queen, moby dick, unforgiven, casino royale, and annie. and those are only the ones that i know to be great, there are surely plenty others that i’m not aware of. watch it.