This article was originally written for the 31 Days of Oscar programming in the TCM Now Playing newsletter in February 2010.
The bad guys in The Asphalt Jungle are not your father's Ocean's 11(unless you're Anjelica Huston, in which case they are your father's). There's no Clooney stylized sexiness here. These guys are thugs. But goodness, do these brutes ever deliver.
Sterling Hayden is the star here, but Sam Jaffe plays the criminal mastermind in an Oscar-nominated turn. Just out of prison, Jaffe's plan is to steal a million in jewels. He just needs a gang and front money. The gang includes Hayden as the heavy and James Whitmore as the getaway driver. They have a code: honor among thieves. The problem is the money - Jaffe climbs the societal ladder to Louis Calhern, who exhibits a silver spoon amorality that makes you yearn for his comeuppance.
The heist itself is a long, gripping scene - no music, but you'll sweat out every second with Hayden, watching for cops from the window. Then there's the dialogue - classic noir language - all capers, hooligans, boxmen and finks.
But what's best is the attitude - a celebration of the working class, even if that class is criminal. Jaffe, Hayden, Whitmore and the others are in it for the money, sure, but they'd never betray the gang. These are scumbags - and I mean that in a good way - doing right by each other. Whitmore does a solid for Hayden; Hayden looks out for Jaffe, and so on.
The only people in it for themselves are the moneymen, Calhern and his sleazy middleman, Marc Lawrence, who should have won an Oscar just for sweating. Only a director as talented as Huston could remove the glossy sheen from those bad guys and still have us rooting for them to the bitter end.
