The Asphalt Jungle

"The City Under the City"

1950 1h 53m EN

🙌

7.5

BANGER

★7.5TMDB · 554

CrimeDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Recently paroled from prison, legendary burglar "Doc" Riedenschneider, with funding from Alonzo Emmerich, a crooked lawyer, gathers a small group of veteran criminals together in the Midwest for a big jewel heist.

“The City Under the City”

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Cast

Sterling Hayden
Dix Handley
Louis Calhern
Alonzo D. Emmerich
Jean Hagen
Doll Conovan
James Whitmore
Gus Minissi
Sam Jaffe
Doc Erwin Riedenschneider
John McIntire
Police Commissioner Hardy
Marc Lawrence
Cobby
Barry Kelley
Lieutenant Ditrich

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: John Huston
Writers: Ben Maddow, John Huston
Languages: German, English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $1.2M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

76 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: German, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Directed by John Huston, shot by Harold Rosson. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Miklós Rózsa. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor George Boemler shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Sterling Hayden and Louis Calhern and Jean Hagen carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "The City Under the City".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

John Huston directs. Harold Rosson behind the camera. Miklós Rózsa scores. George Boemler cuts. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in German, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $1.2M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
276 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
3Dialogue crosses 2 languages: German, English.
4Directed by John Huston, shot by Harold Rosson. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Miklós Rózsa. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor George Boemler shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Sterling Hayden and Louis Calhern and Jean Hagen carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "The City Under the City".
9IMDB entry: tt0042208 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Released under 11 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Harold Rosson
Original score: Miklós Rózsa
Editing: George Boemler
Makeup / hair: Sydney Guilaroff
Runtime: 113 min · 1h 53m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $1,232,000
Original language: EN
IMDB: The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

Awards

National Board of Review: Top Ten Films

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

John Huston

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Selected frames

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2019-06-25
★ 9/10
Experience has taught me never to trust a policeman. Just when you think one's all right, he turns legit. Out of MGM, The Asphalt Jungle is directed by John Huston and based on the novel of the same name by W.R. Burnett. It stars Sterling Hayden, Jean Hagen, Sam Jaffe, Louis Calhern, James Whitmore, Teresa Celli, and in a minor but important role, Marilyn Monroe. Miklós Rózsa scores the music and Harold Rosson photographs it in black & white. Plot sees Erwin "Doc" Riedenschneider (Jaffe) leave prison and quickly assemble a gang to execute a long in gestation jewellery heist. However, with suspicion rife and fate waiting to take a hand, the carefully constructed caper starts to come apart at the seams. John Huston liked a tough movie, having given film noir in America a jump start with The Maltese Falcon in 1941, he also that same year adapted W.R. Burnett's novel High Sierra. Burnett also had on his CV crime classic stories Little Caesar & Scarface, so it's no surprise that Huston was drawn to The Asphalt Jungle. As it turned out, it was a match made in gritty urban heaven. The Asphalt Jungle was one of the first crime films to break with convention and tell the story from the actual side of the criminals. Where once it was the pursuing law officers or private detectives that were the heavy part of the plotting, now under Huston's crafty guidance we have a study in crime and a daring for us to empathise with a bunch of criminals, villains and anti-heroes. As a group the gang consists of very differing characters, and yet they have a common bond, for they each strive for a better life. Be it Hayden's luggish Dix, who dreams of buying back his father's horse ranch back in Kentucky, or Jaffe's Doc, who wants to retire to Mexico and surround himself with girls - it's greed and yearning that binds them all together - With alienation and bleakness, in true film noir traditions, featuring heavily as the plot (and gang) unravels. With gritty dialogue and atmospherically oozing a naturalistic feel, it's also no surprise to note that Huston's movie would go on to influence a ream of similar type films. Some good, some bad, but very few of them have been able to capture the suspense that is wrung out for the actual heist sequence in this. Fabulous in its authenticity, and with that out of the way, it then sets the decaying tone for the rest of the piece. Interesting to note that although we are now firmly in the lives of the "gang", including their respective women (Hagen, Monroe & Celli all shining in what is a very macho movie), we still know that the society outside of their circle is hardly nice either! This is stripped down brutalistic film noir. Merciless to its characters and thriving on ill fate, and closing with a finale that is as perfect as it gets, this is a top line entry in what is the most wonderful of film making styles. 9.5/10

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