The Asphalt Jungle

Plot

Recently paroled from prison, legendary burglar "Doc" Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe), with funding from Emmerich (Louis Calhern) a crooked lawyer, gathers a small group of veteran criminals together in Cincinnati for a big heist. Among those involved include Dix (Sterling Hayden), an hood who sees the upcoming jewel heist as a means to finance his dream of owning a horse farm. Diner owner, a hunchback named Gus Minissi (James Whitmore), is hired on to be the driver for the heist; professional safecracker Louis Ciavelli (Anthony Caruso); and a bookie (Marc Lawrence) acting as the go-between.

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In a tense scene during the well-planned crime (an eleven minute sequence in the film), the criminals confidently carry out the jewel heist in a patient and calm manner. Ciavelli climbs down into a manhole, walks along a tunnel, pounds his way through a brick wall, climbs the basement stairs to the jewelry store, deactivates the door's alarm and lets the other thieves in, and then heads to the main safe. With care, he slides flat on his back under the electric-eye system, picks the gate's lock, drills holes into the safe's solid door, gingerly opens a corked bottle of nitroglycerin, and sets off a charge on the jewelry store safe. Not all goes well as a security guard shoots Ciavelli during the successful caper.

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After finding out about the crime, a corrupt cop (Barry Kelley), angry that his "patsy" (Lawrence) didn't let him in on the caper, beats the bookie into confessing and fingering the other criminals involved. From this point on, the meticulously planned crime falls apart as the cops begin closing in on the gang one by one.

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Film reviews today, as when the film was released, are almost universally positive. Glenn Erickson, the DVD Savant, wrote, following the 2004 DVD release, "The cinematography is expressive and Miklós Rózsa's nervous score - great noir music - rises to an almost cosmic emotional pitch."

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