As directed by John Huston, The Asphalt Jungle is a moody film with an almost overbearing dark atmosphere.  Miklos Rozsa wrote the sparse score, which is no more than a splash of music during the opening sequence and another splash during the final scene.  The rest of the film is marked by an eerie silence and restraint, as any music that appears is diegetic (and limited) in nature.  The result is a film with an uncertain cloud hanging over it, threatening to envelop the characters as well as the city itself.

That city is a true asphalt jungle, full of predatory beasts fighting to survive.  In this film, the city in question is an unnamed Midwestern town (somewhere within driving distance of Cleveland). Noirs usually take place in the urban jungles of New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco.

Melville Street from The Asphalt Jungle

But this city is a different kind of city.  It’s unusually desolate and somber.  The only bits of life we are privy to are criminal existences, as each character lays claim to one.

The Asphalt Jungle paints a humanistic and proletarian picture of its criminals.  They loan each other money regardless of their feelings towards one another, they have families, they love animals, and they have simple dreams.  As Alonzo Emmerich (played by Louis Calhern) states in the film, “Crime is only a left-handed form of human endeavor.”  This is the modest manner in which the criminals identify themselves.  When they hatch their caper, the criminals go about their tasks in an orderly, emotionless, and professional manner.  The results of their job, however, are anything but orderly.  In a heist where everything is planned down to the last detail, only the wildly defiant laws of chance can begin to unravel the design from the inside out.

Note the billowing noir curtains associated with Louis Ciavelli (played by Anthony Caruso), the safecracker, which foreshadow his death.  They appear in a poetic and beautiful shot of his wife and infant son, who lie passively in bed cloaked in heavy shadows; the unstable world of noir is infringing rudely on a serene domestic scene here. Later, during the job, a policeman’s gun falls to the ground, fires blindly on impact, and a bullet somehow finds its way into Louis’ belly.  That’s fate, of an extremely cruel kind.  Note that later still, after the job begins to have a disastrous aftermath, Doc Riedenschneider (played by Sam Jaffe) hopelessly wonders, “What can you do against blind accidents?”  That’s existentialism, and morose statements like this are the swan song for many other noir protagonists as well.

The Asphalt Jungle is a ruinous place, and the characters in the film know it.  Dix Handley (played by Sterling Hayden) says that his goal is to get out of town and “wash this city dirt off”.

Sterling Hayden

Louis remarks “if you want fresh air, don’t look for it in this town”.  The city is a trap, from which there truly is no escape.  Dix tries to get away from the town in an attempt to chase down his dream, but death chases him down quicker.  Doc tries the same thing, and doesn’t even make it to the city limits before the police catch up with him.  Emmerich doesn’t even make it out of the house before the cops come knocking at his door.  This film (and this city) is full of frustrated plans and dead ends.

Note that, in some way, all the major characters get what they want (but not what they expect).  Emmerich is granted what he’s been after the entire film: an easy way out.  He achieves this through a self-inflicted gunshot blast.  Doc gets his hands on a million dollars worth of gemstones, which he hopes will win him a life of luxury chasing young girls in paradise.  When the police finally catch up with him he himself is caught up in the moment, watching a young girl dance seductively for nickels (that’s irony).  One almost gets the feeling that for Doc, his capture was worth that one fleeting moment of sexual gratification.

Doll gets the one and only thing she wanted: Dix — even though her time with him is limited to his final short breaths.  And finally, Dix gets what he’s dreamed of for some time: a return to his past. In this case, the Hickory Woods Ranch in Boone County, Kentucky. It takes every last ounce of his life to make it home, as his blood literally runs out on him due to a leaking gunshot wound in his side.  But Dix drives for ten hours straight, makes it to the country farm he knew and loved as a child, and collapses in a field as he’s stumbling toward the horizon.  As he lies there, the horses he so dearly treasured surround his lifeless body and begin grazing nonchalantly.  Dix passes away with the faintest hint of a smile on his face.  Few conclusions in Hollywood cinema achieve such a moment of grace and tenderness, especially in the face of the extreme and bitter cynicism of classic film noir.

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