The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

In A-list director John Huston's classic, naturalistic film noirish, crime caper-heist thriller was a hard-boiled MGM film of urban corruption, low-life alienation, and claustrophobic, small-time despair. It was adapted by John Huston and Ben Maddow from W. R. Burnett's 1949 novel of the same name. The realistic, documentary-like, urban crime/heist film - advertised as "A John Huston Production" - was one of the first films that completely and specifically detailed and deconstructed how to pull off an authentic-looking heist - something usually considered morally improper under the Production Code.

Huston's work was honored with four Academy Award nominations but no Oscars: Best Supporting Actor (Sam Jaffe), Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best B/W Cinematography (Harold Rosson, who lost to The Third Man (1949)). It was up against considerable competition from the multi-lauded Best Picture of the year, Joseph L. Mankiewicz's All About Eve (1950).

The sparse, gritty, cynical and tense film with a linear narrative has often been considered the definitive heist or caper film, often copied and paid homage to by later films. It was populated with great character actors in a superb ensemble cast. There was an effort to sympathetically display the believable motivations, moral corruption, and everyday, idiosyncratic human personalities of the assembled characters, mostly two-bit criminals (one with a family) and a recently-paroled, unflappable mastermind criminal (Sam Jaffe) who all dreamt of and longed for a quick, million-dollar jewelry store robbery to provide salvation and a means of getting away for their impoverished lives.

• the film's opening - was designed to provide a documentary, nitty-gritty feel; it was set in an unnamed, urban environment somewhere in the Midwest, with bleak views of the decayed and empty city streets of brick and concrete, and electrical trolley lines strung off power poles [Note: The opening sequence was filmed in Cincinnati, OH.); in the early morning fog, a single black police car patroled the area, and followed radio reports of a stick-up at the Hotel de Paris by an "armed suspect, tall man, Caucasian, wearing a dark suit and soft hat" - the man was soon identified as 'hoodlum' Dix Handley (Sterling Hayden in his first major starring role), who hid behind a column-pillar

Police Car Patrolling Empty City Streets

Tall Man Hiding Behind Pillar-Column

Another View of Patrol Car

• the grim, dirty-shaven, Irish-American Handley entered a dilapidated brick building on a corner - a greasy-spoon cafe identified as serving "American Food - Home Cooking." The hunchbacked, heart-of-gold diner operator Gus Minissi (James Whitmore) helped to hide Handley's "heater" in the cash register just before the police entered and booked the tall drifter as a vagrant
• in a police line-up (or "show-up"), Handley was identified as an out-of-work 36 year-old ex-con with a previous arrest in 1937 for illegal possession of firearms; he had served a one to five year state prison term, but escaped in 1939, was then re-arrested in 1940, and released in 1941; due to fear of retaliation, the nervous eye-witness got "cold feet" and declined to identify him to Lieutenant Ditrich (Barry Kelley) as the stick-up man
• the Police Commissioner Hardy (John McIntire) in the river city was upset with Police Lieutenant Ditrich - a corrupt, on-the-take officer, for the rampant rise of crime in the city: "39 thefts, 33 burglaries, 18 robberies, 7 assaults, 5 morals offenses in the past thirty days"; there were also overlooked bookie and horse-gambling operations in the 4th precinct that were still operating: (Hardy: "You don't close 'em hard enough!")
• the legendary mastermind, aging, ex-convict, German criminal Erwin "Doc" Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe) came out of retirement (prison after a seven year stint); he was reported to have left state prison a day earlier en route to the city by train (arriving in the afternoon), but the Lieutenant and his officers had lost his trail while tracking the recently-paroled criminal and was reprimanded by Hardy: "He loses you five blocks from the depot and one of the most dangerous criminals alive is now at large in this city"; Lt. Ditrich was given "one more chance to make good" on his responsibilities - to catch both Handley and Riedenschneider
• in a run-down neighborhood, the aging, well-dressed Riedenschneider was delivered by taxi to the establishment of slimy, bow-tied bookie Cobby (Marc Lawrence); the ex-con was often called "Doc" but known by other aliases: "The Professor" and "Herr Doctor"; he displayed his biggest personality weakness - lecherous and voyeuristic tendencies (first foreshadowed when he perused a girlie pin-up calendar hanging on the wall - and shortly later when he flipped through the illustrated months)

Three Major Corrupt Criminals Plotting a Caper-Heist
"Doc" (The Professor) (Sam Jaffe)	Bookie Cobby (Marc Lawrence)	Mr. Alonzo Emmerich (Louis Calhern) - Lawyer and Financier

• with a heavy German accent, the emotionless and gentlemanly, mild-mannered, business-like professional criminal "Doc" delivered a proposition to Cobby - his foolproof plan that he had devised in prison during his seven-year sentence; he meticulously explained his proposed robbery or "caper" - a heist to steal jewels worth almost a million dollars; he explained that he needed Cobby to serve as his go-between with an influential, but crooked attorney known as "Mr. Emmerich"; the shady, wealthy big-time lawyer and financier would be required to obtain the hard cash ($50,000) needed to finance the burglary
• after slimy bookmaker Cobby phoned financier Alonzo Emmerich (Louis Calhern) - a corrupt, untrustworthy, white-collar, sleazy lawyer, he was interrupted by Dix Handley who entered and wished to place bets on the horse races; Dix - who owed Cobby $2,300 dollars already - accused Cobby of unfairly treating him and making him look small in front of Doc - with explicit language: ("Don't bone me!...Did I ever welch?...You just boned me...I'm not askin' you any favors. I'll go getcha your twenty-three hundred, right now")
• gambling on the races was one of his "crazy" vices and obsessive weaknesses that had left Dix in continual debt; to pay off his debt, Handley sought out Gus at the diner, who promised to loan $1,000 to Handley (and acquire the remainder somehow); Gus offered advice to Handley to avoid any more holdups due to increased police efforts to curb crime

Three Crooks Hired by "Doc" to Commit Jewelry Store Robbery
Louis Ciavelli (Anthony Caruso) - "Safecracker"	Gus Minissi (James Whitmore) - "Getaway Driver"	"Dix" Handley - "Hooligan"

• to find additional ways to raise money for Handley, Gus phoned a semi-professional, two-bit crook named Louis Ciavelli (Anthony Caruso), a professional "box man" (safecracker); the Italian-American family man at first declined helping Handley, but then kept the conversation a secret from his wife Maria (Teresa Celli) with a newborn infant, and agreed to help
• Dix Handley's sympathetic, eager-to-please, needy, in-love girlfriend/moll "Doll" Conovan (Jean Hagen), a lonely waitress, sought shelter in Dix's place; she was very upset and crying over being "locked out" of her lodgings (at the "clip joint" - the Club Regal) due to a police raid; Dix allowed her to stay for a few nights and coldly cautioned: "Don't you go gettin' any ideas, Doll"
• in Emmerich's 2nd residence later that evening, "Doc" explained his well-researched plan for one last jewel robbery; Emmerich advised that the take of a million dollars worth of jewels would ultimately amount to about a half-million dollars "in actual cash" after the rocks were fenced off; "Doc" listed the three things he needed: money to operate ($50,000), "personnel" - a crew of underworld characters, and the disposal of the stolen merchandise; it would require three "helpers" including a "boxman" or safecracker (paid $25,000) (a perfect job for Ciavelli), a getaway driver (paid $10,000), and a quick-trigger, reliable "hooligan" or gunman (paid $15,000); Emmerich agreed to be hired to finance the operation - and act as a fence (to dispose of the take); the married playboy Emmerich agreed to finance the job due to his need to support his own expensive habits
• as "Doc" was leaving, he described his dream of life after this last heist - an escape to idyllic Mexican beaches and chasing young ladies: ("I'll live like a king. Mexican girls are very pretty. I'll have nothing to do all day long but chase them in the sunshine")

Emmerich's Mistress or "Niece" Angela Phinlay (Marilyn Monroe)

• after "Doc" and Cobby departed, Emmerich revealed that he was in the midst of an affair with a seductive mistress; in another room, he walked in on his blonde, voluptuous mistress Angela Phinlay (Marilyn Monroe in a minor but memorable breakout cameo role), who was resting on his sofa; he complimented her and described her as "some sweet kid" while to his distaste, she called him "Uncle Lon"; she kissed him, fell into his lap, and then went off to her private bedroom; he was enamoured by her glittery high-heeled shoes; after Angela left the room, Emmerich phoned Robert Brannom (Brad Dexter), a private detective, and requested that he collect about $100,000 owed to him by debtors
• after a night's sleep, Dix told Doll that he had been dreaming about horses he rode as a boy (especially a "tall black colt" named Corncracker); he had grown up on a Kentucky horse-farm; he described to her how he had become a "hooligan"
• as Doll listened, in one of the more memorable scenes, Dix told her about his family farm with horses grazing serenely in the bluegrass fields; his idea of the pure clean life after washing away the "city dirt," was to one day return to and reclaim (buy back) his family's Kentucky 160 acre horse farm in Boone County, where he remembered one "rotten year" - the family lost the farm, and his gambling losses at the race track determined Dix's fate - a transfer to the city where he was cut off from his roots and therefore became an alienated, two-bit, horse-gambling hoodlum: ("My old man died and we lost our corn crop. That black colt I was telling you about, he broke his leg and had to be shot. That was a rotten year. I'll never forget the day we left. Me and my brother swore we'd buy Hickory Wood Farm back some day...Twelve grand would have swung it, and I almost made it once. I had more than five thousand dollars in my pocket and Pampoon was runnin' in the Suburban. I figured he couldn't lose. I put it all on his nose. He lost by a nose...The way I figure, my luck's just gotta turn. One of these days, I'll make a real killing and then I'm gonna head for home. First thing I do when I get there is take a bath in the creek, and get this city dirt off me")
• through loans from others (Gus and Louis), Dix completely paid off his gambling debt of $2,300 to Cobby in cash; although dissuaded by Cobby to bet his money on the horses, Cobby introduced him to "Doc" and recommended the small-time hood with a cold-blooded temperament and reputation as a "hooligan" (known for stick-ups and his gambling habit for horses); "Doc" philosophically thought: "One way or another, we all work for our vice"
• after hearing from a soused, "dim-witted dame" - his "date" the previous evening, "Doc" was concerned that Emmerich's lavish life-style (due to spending on Angela) might mean that he was nearly out of money: ("He's got two houses, four cars, a half-a-dozen servants. And one blonde"); he wanted Emmerich to prove his worth: "Emmerich must put up before I can hire a crew"
• "Doc's" concerns were legitimate - in his two-story city residence, Emmerich had just found out from Brannom, his shady private detective, that his debtors could not pay immediately; Emmerich was devastated and blurted out: "I'm broke!"; Brannom immediately assumed it was due to Emmerich's mistress: "How could you let a dame like Angela take you this way?"; Emmerich blamed his financial state on other things: "It's not Angela. It's everything. It's my whole way of life"
• the nearly-bankrupt lawyer is desperate to provide the cash ($50,000 dollars) to financially back Doc's burglary caper of Belletier's ("the biggest caper ever to be pulled in the Middle West"). He lets Brannom in on his devious plan to double-cross the crooks - to promise to pay up shortly after the loot is delivered after the heist, but then disappear from the country with the jewels (and his mistress?); Brannom, offered a 50-50 split, suggested that for the time being, they could acquire a $50,000 cash advance from bookie Cobby to provide the financing
• "Doc" carefully interviewed and recruited a trio of local, semi-professional criminals for the robbery; all three crooks were paid flat-fees for their services, by "paymaster" Cobby; Ciavelli was hired as the safecracker, Gus as the reliable wheelman or getaway driver, and Dix Handley as the Southern, tough killer "hooligan"; the film realistically depicted all the semi-professional criminals and their motivations to join in the crime
• meanwhile, Doll told Dix that she had found another place to stay in a girlfriend's vacant apartment until the first of the month; as she was leaving, she kissed Dix goodbye, and he asked for her address in order to contact her
• at 10 pm at Gus' place, "Doc" met with the selected burglars to plot out the timing of the heist and break-in over a diagram of the jewelry store Belletier's; they discussed Louis' descent down a manhole (at 11:45 pm the next evening) into an underground steam tunnel, the breaking through of the soft wall into the jewelry store's basement furnace room, the deactivation of alarms, and the opening up of the back door for Dix and Doc at 11:54 pm; after the meeting broke up, "Doc" wanted to be assured that Dix would be his strong-arm backup if Emmerich failed to come through and provide them with the money for the jewels immediately
• at 11:30 pm the next evening, Emmerich was seen packing and planning to leave the country (with his passport) after the caper; his bedridden, insomniac, invalid wife May (Dorothy Tree) begged her husband to stay and play a card game (Casino), but he claimed he was too busy and had a late business meeting
• the actual jewel robbery - an 11-minute sequence - was clinically-delineated with details of the tense heist, although everything was at first very calm and patient (Ciavelli's hammering through an underground brick wall, deactivation of the alarm system, opening the back door to allow the others in, the setting off of a "nitro" explosive to blow open the safe (using a nitro bottle filled with home-made "soup")
• however, the successful heist unraveled quickly and everything fell apart when the explosive force of the blast accidentally set off other alarms; police cars surrounded the area; safecracker Louis' drill broke as he was working on the internal safe, and they were delayed; after it was opened, Doc was able to dump trays of jewels into his briefcase; as they attempted to leave through the store's back door, the armed store night-watchman arrived at 12:15; Dix slugged the guard and his gun went off when it hit the floor, mortally-wounding Ciavelli in the stomach with a stray bullet
• after 1:00 am, Dix and Doc delivered the stolen gems to a worried and pacing Emmerich (waiting with an armed Brannom); as earlier decided, the double-crossing "big fixer" Emmerich claimed, with his carefully-planned alibi, that he didn't have the money to pay them, and suggested having the jewels entrusted to him while the money was raised; Emmerich double-crossed both Dix and "Doc" when he delayed payment for the jewels and suggested taking possession of the jewels from "Doc"; Brannom pulled out his gun to reinforce Emmerich's proposal

Arrival - Meeting Brannom at Emmerich's Apartment	"Doc" With the Briefcase Full of Jewels	Emmerich Impressed by the Jewels
"Doc" Perplexed That Emmerich Won't Have Money For a Few Days	Brannom Brandishing His Gun to Reinforce Emmerich's Proposal	"Doc" and Dix Double-Crossed by Emmerich

• Dix realized the fencing operation had been sabotaged during the anxious standoff and shootout; as Doc tossed his satchel of jewels at Brannom, Handley had a split-second to shoot and kill Brannom with a bullet in the chest, but he was badly wounded himself on his right side; Dix sneered angrily and shouted at the sniveling and sobbing Emmerich for his aborted double-cross, and threatened to shoot him - Dix demanded answers: "Are you a man or what – tryin’ gyp and double-cross with no guts for it? What's inside of you? What's keeping you alive?"
• according to "Doc," the jewels were now worthless; Emmerich escaped being shot when he agreed to dispose of the jewels for him; Doc proposed and Emmerich agreed that the jewels would be offered back to the jewelry store through the store's insurance company for 25% of their value
• everything began to unravel; Gus took the seriously-wounded Ciavelli back to his home, and lied about the cause of Louis' lethal gunshot wound to his wife Maria, and denied him the care of a doctor; Maria projected her anger, fear, blame and hate onto Gus and his physical deformity - blaming him for all of her husband's troubles: "You dirty cripple, you crooked back!" Maria then apologized: "I'm sorry, Gus, but I gotta blame somebody." Gus responded: "What I carry on my back, I was born with it. I didn't grow it myself." As a police siren wailed in the background, Maria aptly described it: "Sounds like a soul in hell"
• to cover up for the murder in his residence, Emmerich disposed of Brannom's body in the river by dumping it from a bridge; Cobby commiserated about the failed plan - worthless jewels, the dead guard, two of the gang members seriously wounded, and the fact that he was out "thirty grand" for the advanced financing; Gus was arrested, and Emmerich was able to come through with the deal with the store's insurance company
• however, after the police discovered the body of his private detective Brannom in the river, with a list of Emmerich's debtors in his pocket, the police grilled Emmerich, who was relying on Angela to provide a dishonest alibi about how he was with her the previous night at his cottage by the river: (he told her: "Just politics, baby, good ol' dirty politics")
• afterwards, the pale-faced Emmerich revealed his corruption to his bedridden wife May, who feared his many associations with "awful people...downright criminals" - he replied to her that straights weren't much different than crooks: "Oh, there's nothing's so different about them. After all, crime is only a left-handed form of human endeavor"
• although seriously wounded, Dix wasn't interested in joining Doc to venture to Mexican beaches with pretty young girls to retire, but wanted instead to return to his boyhood home in Kentucky and recapture the beauty of his childhood
• a manhunt commenced to arrest "Doc" - the mastermind of the robbery; the headlines read: "POLICE SET NET FOR JEWEL THEFT SUSPECT"; Dix and Doc, the only at-large criminals, were forced to leave Donato's; in their flight, the two were confronted in a railroad car barn area by a night guard (Ray Teal) who recognized the ex-convict, and Doc suffered a bloody head wound before Dix knocked out the guard; in the middle of the night, they found refuge with Doll where she was staying (in the vacant apartment of a girlfriend)
• while hiding out at Doll's place, "Doc" couldn't believe his bad luck and how the heist was doomed from the start: "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? One thing I ought to have figured and didn't was Emmerich. I know why I didn't. I'm not kidding myself. It was the extra dough he promised. I got hungry. Greed made me blind"
• Charles Wright (Benny Burt), the taxi-cab hackey that had deposited Doc at Cobby's "bookie-joint" establishment about a week earlier reported to the police station and the Commissioner about his recollections; as a result, and due to pressure from above, the strong-armed corrupt cop Lt. Ditrich was pressured to compel the cowardly and cringing bookie Cobby in his warehouse - by repeatedly slapping him - to "sing" - to "turn states" evidence and name his accomplices; Cobby obediently agreed to rat out and betray the gang for a better deal with the judge for himself

At His Cottage, Emmerich Tempting Angela With a Trip	Angela Excited About a Trip to Cuba to Wear Her New Bathing Suit
Interrupted by Police Knocking at the Door	Angela's Dishonest Alibi To Save Emmerich Revealed

• Emmerich was lounging at his cottage with Angela, where he was promising her a trip for a change of scenery (to "the coast, Florida, anywhere you like") - when she proposed going to Cuba (something she had read about in a magazine), since she had just bought a bathing suit for the occasion; two detectives and Commissioner Hardy arrived and threatened him with arrest for "complicity - in robbery and in murder"; Hardy revealed that Cobb had made a thorough signed confession, and then, Emmerich's alibi (through Angela's previous confession) was revealed to be a lie when both Detective Andrews and Emmerich encouraged her to comply with the authorities and to tell the real truth: ("Get it over with, and be smart...Tell him the truth"); after her new statement, Angela asked: "What about my trip, Uncle Lon? Is it still on?" and he assured her: "Don't worry, baby, you'll have plenty of trips"
• afterwards, Emmerich asked to phone his wife May; he retreated to a side room and instead wrote an apology-suicide note to May, but then he tore up the note into pieces, reached for a gun in the desk drawer, and committed suicide (the gun-shot was heard off-screen)
• at about the same time, both Cobby and Gus were in jail after being arrested (due to Cobby's lengthy confession); Gus attacked Cobby and threatened to kill him for ratting the gang out; the cops arrived at the Ciavelli household to find that Louis had died and a priest was issuing the last rites
• meanwhile, "Doc" was planning his escape in a taxi heading to Cleveland, but first offered Dix $50,000 worth of the jewels, but Dix declined: (""What would I do with 'em? Can you see me walkin' into a hock shop with that stuff?"); as "Doc" departed, Dix commented on him: "That squarehead, he's a funny little guy. I don't get him at all"
• [Note: By film's end, four women associated with the crooks were also seriously affected by their screw-ups: Emmerich's neglected invalid wife and his young mistress, Ciavelli's widow left with a child, and Dix's girlfriend Doll.]
• Doc hired a Globe company taxi-cab, driven by a fellow German named Franz Schurz (Henry Rowland), to drive him to Cleveland (for a promise of a $50 tip); meanwhile, Doll purchased a getaway car, a 1939 Plymouth coupe, for $400 for Dix, now that he had begun to bleed again from his side and wanted to drive home to the Kentucky farm of his youth; she vowed to drive the 10-hour trip, knowing that Dix was in poor shape, and that she loved him: "I just want to be with you"
• Doc was apprehended by police after he stopped on the outskirts of the city at a roadside diner during his getaway; he was doomed when he obsessively (lustfully and voyeuristically) leered at a young girl named Jeannie (Helene Stanley), then gave her a bunch of nickels to put in the jukebox ("Play me a tune") and self-indulgently watched her dance to the music - his delayed departure (he believed he had "plenty of time") led to his arrest - two policemen watched him from outside through venetian blinds

Doc Watching the Young Girl Jeannie Dancing	Providing Nickels to Jeannie to Feed the Jukebox
"Doc's" Delay by Leering at Jeannie Dancing to Jukebox Music While Police Watched and Readied to Arrest Him

• while on their way, Dix, who was bleeding to death and passed out at the wheel, was driven by Doll to a small-town physician, Dr. Swanson (John Maxwell); the physician became suspicious about his gunshot wound and phoned the local Sheriff as they hurriedly drove off

Doll to Dix: "I just want to be with you"

Dix On the Long Drive to Kentucky - With Doll

Bleeding to Death in Dr. Swanson's Office

• in the film's final press conference, after the arrest of the "dishonest" cop Lt. Ditrich - after Cobby undoubtedly finked on him, Police Commissioner Hardy delivered a moralizing speech to reporters about rampant crime - illustrated by four radio speakers (lined up in a row) that broadcast crime reports: "...But suppose we had no police force, good or bad. Suppose we had (he flipped off all four radios) - just silence. Nobody to listen, nobody to answer. The battle's finished. The jungle wins. The predatory beasts take over. Think about it..."
• Commissioner Hardy then summarized the police work regarding the jewelry heist: "Well gentlemen, three men are in jail [Gus, Cobby, Doc], three men dead [Emmerich, Brannom, Ciavelli], one by his own hand [Emmerich]. One man's a fugitive [Dix] - and we have reason to believe seriously wounded. That's six out of seven, not bad. And we'll get the last one too. In some ways, he's the most dangerous of them all. A hardened killer. A hooligan. A man without human feeling or human mercy."

Dix's Dream to Return to His Childhood's Kentucky Horse Farm

• in the final scene, a bleeding and dying Dix Handley stumbled from his car after driving to his Hickory Wood Farm (his father's Kentucky horse farm lost during the Depression, and his own childhood home); he mumbled and hallucinated with memories of the simple life he once experienced at the farm - he parked outside, opened the gate, staggered in (followed by Doll), collapsed and then expired in a sunny horse pasture surrounded by a long white fence, amidst four grazing and nuzzling colts he had dreamed of owning