The Asphalt Jungle

The Asphalt Jungle is a grim crime film about the planning and execution of a jewel heist and the subsequent police hunt for the thieves.

Doc Riedenschneider has barely finished serving his prison sentence before he is well under way planning a new heist. On the one hand he needs reliable people for the rough work, on the other he needs a moneyman to finance the job. The oily bookmaker Cobby introduces Doc to the lawyer Alonzo D. Emmerich, who maintains a facade of respectable bourgeois nobility. In reality Emmerich is driven by ruthless selfishness. Doc does indeed have a feeling that Emmerich cannot be trusted. On the other hand Doc puts his faith in the hooligan Dix Handley, who is not nearly as dishonest and barbaric as he is accused of being. Doc and his accomplices succeed in looting the jeweller's shop, but then everything starts to go wrong.

Although the years have left their mark on The Asphalt Jungle, it is still fundamentally exciting, but the film really distinguishes itself through its nuanced portraits of the characters who populate the big city's underworld. The city is depicted as a jungle where the weakest inevitably succumb. The fateful film noir atmosphere is further underlined by the shadow effects and the many night scenes.