A Movie Review: The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

The Asphalt Jungle.  The movie invites us to witness the shady world of illegal gambling and criminal activity.  Doc Erwin Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe) has just gotten released from prison.  He wants to make a massive heist and then retire outside America.  To do so, he needs some help.  He gets a shady lawyer, Alonzo D. Emmerich (Louis Calhern), to bankroll the heist.  Doc then hires a safe crack, a driver and a strongman.  They pull off the heist, but complications such as double crossing and unanticipated events occur.

What is really cool in this movie is seeing Marilyn Monroe show up on screen a handful of times as Emmerich's young girlfriend.  She's totally sexy in the role.  What older man looking to cheat on his wife wouldn't want to put her up in the second house.

The heist is awesomely filmed.  While watching, you can't help but think of Ocean's Eleven and The Italian Job.

What perhaps doesn't work as well?

One kind of wishes the movie went longer so that the post-heist events could play out better.

Some of the acting felt a little stilted, such as Sterling Hayden's.

The fight scenes could have been done better.

I also had a hard time hearing parts of the dialogue, which perhaps is driven by the age of the film.

Over-all; however, I enjoyed this movie a lot.