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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video:
The dark urban world of The Asphalt Jungle is one of the essential destinations in film noir, but be warned: despite tough guy Sterling Hayden's dreams of bucolic escape, there is no way out. John Huston directed this superbly calibrated crime classic, which displays his usual wry appreciation of fringies and down-and-outers. This time the task for Huston's eccentric ensemble is a jewel robbery, which--this being a Huston film--can't possibly work out as well as its plan. The cast includes Sam Jaffee, indelible as a criminal mastermind, and the pre-stardom Marilyn Monroe. Hayden plays the kind of mug he would revisit in Stanley Kubrick's The Killing, which is an informal homage to this film. And the film's look is definitive: both artful and gritty, it creates a noir landscape that traps its people just as surely as the tar pits trapped the dinosaurs. No wonder they call it noir. --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - "We all work for our vices."
Once a key part of the mighty battle between Louis B. Mayer and head of production Dore Schary for creative control at MGM, John Huston's classic 1950 heist movie The Asphalt Jungle is good - very good - but at times it feels like it would have benefited from a lower budget and a tighter running time. Even though it was a comparatively low budget picture for the studio there's still a feeling that it's a film about people with no money made by people with rather a lot of it even if it was part of ... Read More
Rating: - Good Noir/Good True Crime
"The Asphalt Jungle" is a good, solid noir/ heist movie. AJ was shot in beautiful black and white against a grim, unspecified urban background. The cast work is excellent, with Sterling Hayden, Sam Jaffe, James Whitmore, Marc Lawrence and Anthony Caruso as the robbers. For a crew of bad guys, they are surprisingly likable; this viewer was rooting for them! Some had families, girl friends and wives to support. Those roles are in stark contrast to a crooked police detective, Barry Kelley and the overbearing ... Read More
Rating:  - A real gem
This movie is fabulous. It's not only well acted, but the story and the lighting (or lack of) makes this one of my favorite movies from this time period. Hayden (Dix) is one terrific actor - watch for the niceties when he is talking with Jean Hagen (Doll). One to be watched over and over as you catch new things upon reviewing. Huston's characters have big plans that are improbable from the start.
See Hayden in The Killing (1956) directed by Kubrick.
Rating: - darkness at the break of noon
one of the finest noir films, with a nihilist point of view thru the lens of the great john huston, temporarily relocated at mgm between his days at warners and his longest period as an independent filmmaker. set against a gritty anonymous city, an assortment of failures try to pull off one career-making heist, and of course fail miserably. but thats only the groundwork for some insightful character studies by the likes of sterling hayden and a corps of familiar faces. as good as they come for this genre. ... Read More
Rating: - Noir heist film!
John Huston's noir-thriller is also a heist movie. When Doc (Sam Jaffe) gets out of prison, he has a plan for the big heist. He needs financial backing and a crew to help him. Dix (Sterling Hayden) is the muscle, Gus (James Whitmore) the driver, and Emmerich (Louis Calhern) is the financial backer.
Dix is an embittered man whose dream is to buy back the farm his family lost. Doc is a cool customer, genial and intellectual, and always has a plan. Emmerich has a sick wife at home and a hot ... Read More
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