So far we've seen two films from the film noir genre, the first of which being Asphalt Jungle, starring Sterling Hayden as Dix Handley, a complex hooligan (but lets not kid ourselves, Sam Jaffe really steals the show as Doc Riedenschneider.) Asphalt Jungle is in many ways the quintessential film noir, because it satisfies all of the cliches associated with the genre, such as the dark wet streets, the prostitute with a heart of gold, crooked cops, and everything happens at night. Some people would say that the caper gone wrong plot is cliche too, but really, its not cliche, its a classic formula for a kick-ass film. Really, besides the standard fare for film noir, Asphalt Jungle is anything but, for two reasons. 1.) The film has high production values, or at least higher than the other films from the film noir genre at the time. I can't really verify this, but I'm going to take Mr. Bennett's word on this one. 2.) The film has balls. The hero shoots first, there is a calendar with hot babes on it, and the main characters blow up a fucking safe with nitro. These are all rather practical special effects, and "perks" but this film has more panache than any of those generic Hollywood special effect cluster fucks that are invading American cinema. The fact that this stuff got past the censors is another thing to marvel at. Huston does a great job of making the "good stuff" get past the censors. Dix and Bob Brannom shoot nearly at the same time, nitro is called juice, and the women on the calendar aren't even naked.
Tomorrow I compare Asphalt Jungle with Dark City.
