Sunday, December 3, 2017
337 - The Asphalt Jungle, United States, 1950. Dir. John Huston.
Doc Riedenschneider is released from jail after seven years.
He goes straight to Cobby's place.
Cobby runs a betting house under the radar. Well, he is very much on police Lieutenant Ditrich's radar, but Ditrich allows it. Ditrich feels that giving people a bit of an outlet keeps them out of real trouble. Let them have their gambling and they will not be committing robberies.
Ditrich's boss, police Commissioner Hardy, does not see it that way. He is resolute that all crime will be cleaned up in this town. This town is somewhere in the Midwest, and it is big enough to be a big city. Something like Kansas City or Saint Louis or Omaha.
When Doc arrives at Cobby's, he pitches him a new job. Robbing Belletier's. The jewelry store. The take is worth half a million dollars.
Meanwhile, tall man Dix Handley arrives at Gus Minissi's diner. He hands him his gun. Gus hides it in the cash register till. The cops come in. Frisk Dix. Do not find a piece. They take him in to a lineup. A witness witnesses the lineup. Does not recognize any of them. Ditrich pressures him. Wants him to finger Dix. The witness says No. Ditrich is angry.
Cobby is in. He introduces Doc to Alonzo Emmerich. A rich man. He will be their backer. They will hire three men. A box man, Louie Ciavelli, a driver, Gus, and a hooligan. Gun brings in his friend Dix as the hooligan. Emmerich agrees to bankroll the operation. All is set.
But after they leave, Emmerich--who has a wife, May, and a mistress, Angela Phinley (played by a young Marilyn Monroe), who calls him Uncle--calls his collections man, his Guido, Bob Brannon, and gives him a list of debtors. Go use whatever means necessary to collect what they owe me. That will raise $100,000 for the job. Do not tell me what methods you use.
But then he reveals that he is broke. He does not accuse Angela, even though he is her sugar daddy. He says his lavish lifestyle has bankrupted him. Therefore, he intends to double-cross the gang. He will find the fence. They will leave the jewels with him. He will ask for a few days to get the cash. Then he will leave the country.
Despite the fact that the agreement is that he will give them the cash the moment they bring him the jewels.
Do you see something potentially going wrong here?
John Huston, as always, directs a solid film here. A classic. He focuses on human personalities, human behavior, and human relationships. The characters are developed and intriguing.
Dix, for example, is not just muscle, even though he looks and talks like it. He is intelligent. He has a past. He has a real relationship with Doll, his girl, and he has real dreams and goals.
You can say that about each character, played naturally by each actor.
Yesterday, we saw Dix Steele in In a Lonely Place (1950). Today, we see Dix Handley in The Asphalt Jungle (1950). Dixon must have been a popular nickname that year.
On Thursday we saw a thirty-minute heist performed in the French film, from American director Jules Dassin, Rififi (1955). Today, we see an eleven-minute heist performed in this one.
The great John McIntire plays Commissioner Hardy, and he wants all seven members of the gang. He counts them down as they get them.
As usual, we see the heist through the eyes of the gang, and we see the methods they use and follow them and almost real time.
Dix grew up on a thoroughbred farm in Kentucky. His father was important and had money. When he sleeps, he dreams of being a boy and riding a tough colt, receiving the praise of his father. When he awakens, he tells Doll his dream. She asks if that happened to him as a boy. He says No. In real life the colt bucked him off against a fence and his father criticized him.
That sums up everything for him.
He wants to go home.
He wants to buy back his lost farm. Hickorywood.
He wants to tame a tough colt. A black colt.
He wants his father's approval.
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