When the script for The Asphalt Jungle was completed, Huston decided to cast the film with relative unknowns. Huston first firmed up the role of Doc with his old friend Sam Jaffe. Huston also handpicked Louis Calhern, James Whitmore, Jean Hagen, and Marc Lawrence, who had played Ziggy, one of the gangsters in Key Largo (1948).

For the lead role of Dix Handley, Huston chose Sterling Hayden, whom the director met in Washington, D.C. during a protest against the House of Un- American Activities Committee investigation. When the pair met to discuss the project, Huston said to Hayden, "I've admired you for a long time, Sterling. They don't know what to make of a guy like you in this business." Huston was honest with Hayden about his chance for the lead role in The Asphalt Jungle. Hayden recounts in his biography Huston's pitch: "Now, Sterling, I want you to do this part. The studio does not. They want a top name star. They say you mean nothing when it comes to box office draw-I told them there aren't five names in this town (that) mean a damn thing at the box office. Fortunately, they're not making this picture. I am. Now let me tell you about Dix Handley....Dix is you and me and every other man who can't fit into the groove." Rumored to be fighting severe alcohol and psychiatric problems, Hayden landed Dix Handley, his first major starring role, over the objection of MGM executive Dore Schary. Hayden's gritty performance proved many Hollywood naysayers flat wrong. For instance, Hayden himself was nervous about the climactic scene in the picture, when Dix breaks down in tears in front of Jean Hagen. According to the director though, Hayden did not have anything to worry about. After the actor delivered the scene beautifully, Huston took Hayden aside and said, "The next time somebody says you can't act, tell them to call Huston."

Marilyn Monroe was a bit actress under contract to Fox and had not yet had a s peaking role; Fox eventually dropped her contract. At least two versions exist as to how Monroe came to be cast in MGM's production of The Asphalt Jungle. One version has an employee of MGM's talent department suggesting that John Huston try out Monroe for the part of Louis Calhern's mistress, with Huston immediately recognizing her as perfect for the role after her sensual audition. But another version, as supported by MGM archives, has Monroe as a "dark horse" contender for the role. Huston had reportedly already chosen a blond actress named Lola Albright for the role. When a very nervous Monroe auditioned for the part, Huston was not impressed. But Albright had recently found success with a supporting role in Champion (1949), so it was unlikely she would accept a small role in the crime melodrama. Huston tested eight other starlets, but Monroe stayed in the running, mainly because of the persistence of MGM talent director, Lucille Ryman Carroll. Huston remained adamant that Monroe wouldn't fit the bill, until Carroll prevailed by taking advantage of an ironic coincidence.

It turned out that Huston, an avid horseman, had a team of Irish stallions boarded and trained at Carroll's ranch, and he happened to be $18,000 in arrears for payments to the ranch. On a Sunday afternoon in September, Carroll and her husband invited Huston out to the ranch and made him an offer he couldn't refuse, to borrow a line from another movie. Carroll informed Huston that if he did not allow Monroe another shot at the role, the ranch would sell his stallions and collect the money due. Huston did n ot refuse the terms, and Monroe got another screen test, only this time, she had the support of MGM chief Louis B. Mayer and MGM hair stylist Sidney Guilaroff. Monroe got the small role, of which she would eventually regard as one of her best performances, particularly the last scene with Calhern. When Fox chief Darryl F. Zanuck saw The Asphalt Jungle, he again assumed her contract.

The censors had a conniption over Louis Calhern's suicide as written in the o riginal script. In the rejected scene, Calhern was to write a short, moving letter to his wife, then take a pistol out of his desk and do the deed. While suicide was a top no-no on the list of forbidden acts, what made the scene more objectionable to the censors was the fact that Calhern's character was apparently in his right mind. They reasoned that no man in his right mind would commit suicide. According to John Huston, the rewritten suicide in the final film ironically made for a much better scene. During the production of The Asphalt Jungle, Walter Huston came to Hollywood for his son John's forty-fourth birthday party. Two days later, with John at his side, the legendary actor of stage and screen, died of heart failure at the age of sixty-six.

When The Asphalt Jungle was being prepared for a British bow, the producers hesitated because the film was so full of American slang. At the time, films heavy with slang were usually redubbed for English audiences. Gerard Fairlie, the British author of the Bulldog Drummond adventure stories, was called upon as a consultant, and he advised against redubbing, even though some words would go right over the heads of British viewers. The film was not redubbed and earned boffo box-office in England.

by Scott McGee