The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

I suppose the only reason why this movie can be purchased on video (not on DVD though, it seems) is the fact that Marilyn Monroe plays a part in it. If I am right, this shows how much the movie industry has to rely on big names. Sometimes this is a real shame. No movie proves this better than Asphalt Jungle.

This caper movie is one of my all time favorites and frankly the best of its genre. Its brilliance lies for me in the fact that no big name of the Hollywood acting community was involved – Monroe was small fries then. Instead John Huston worked with a cast of reliable, mostly very experienced character actors many people will know as "supports" from numerous other movies of the period. And many of those actors probably gave here the best performances of their lives. Everybody is cast dead right, this is what is so magnificent about Asphalt Jungle. The balance is perfect, the chemistry works all ways. Maybe just one miscast actor or actress would have spoiled the whole atmosphere. No one is overacting at any time, and there are many, many very moving moments as one can observe these characters struggling on the sidelines of urban society.

One is always tempted to name an actress or an actor whose performance one liked best in a movie. Here, I could not do it – I liked them all. Yet I want to mention one actor: Louis Calhern. Seldom has a sudden change of mood and countenance in a character had such an impact on me as a viewer.