The Asphalt Jungle

The Asphalt Jungle cannot quite be considered a period piece because it hasn't been left amoulding in the MGM morgue long enough. Its interest lies, rather, as an antecedent to the Dragnet-type thriller. The tender first steps of that animal are unsteady and grouping; but as progenitor of a brood of offspring, its technical effects are interesting to watch in evolution.

Development of characters, by tracing their psychological and environmental background, seems to be director John Huston's central aim. The Asphalt Jungle, like its descendants, has no intricate plot. The emphasis must fall on the characters' past and how they react to the strain of the monumental crime they commit. Huston succeeds with some of his players and fails with others. The realism he tries to create is ofen shattered by weak dialogue and an implausible story. He has not mastered startling photographic technique. When these attempts at effect fail to divert attention from the stupid, simple plot, the suspense expires and the rest is aggravating.

Sterling Hayden, a country-boy from Boone County, Kentucky, is ridden with city dirt. He doesn't care much for the ladies (principally Jean Hagen) but admits a weakness for horses. "Math luck's just gotta change," he observes, but one fears that it never does. As farm boy turned gangster, Hayden is supposed to give a new slant to the gun-slinging mobster--victim of environment, sentimental, lovable. Impossible lines and Hayden's mouthing of them preclude a convincing portrayal.

Sam Jaffe's role as the cool and precise master-mind of a jewel robbery is well-conceived. Jaffe is not shallow; he learns that an old man must not think about young girls, and seems quite willing to accept this sage ethic. Louis Calhern's part involves an early and unlikely double-cross from which, as far as the story goes, he never recovers. But he, too, sees his errors, commits suicide, and the Witches are all happy again. playing at being Calhern's moll, a young starlet named Marilyn Monroe in her first performance reaches the peak of her acting career.