The Asphalt Jungle (1950) on Netflix
Passed19501h 52mCrimeDramaFilm-Noir
Fresh out of prison, Doc Riedenschneider needs fifty thousand dollars to hire a crew for a jewel robbery. A bookie brings him to lawyer Alonzo Emmerich, who will put up the money.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.8/1033,413 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes98%
Trailer
Plot summary
Doc Erwin Riedenschneider comes out of prison with one last plan: a jewel robbery in a Midwestern river city that he believes will bring half a million dollars. Putting a crew together costs fifty thousand, so the bookie Cobby introduces him to Alonzo Emmerich, a high-society lawyer who agrees to put up the money and find a buyer for the stones. Doc hires Louie Ciavelli to crack the safe, the diner owner Gus Minissi to drive, and Dix Handley, a small-time hood who dreams of buying back his family's Kentucky horse farm. With the men in place, the job waits on a single night.
Cast
Show all 20 cast
- Benny Burtas Taxi Driver (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- John Huston wanted Lola Albright for Angela Phinlay and she was unavailable, so he tested Marilyn Monroe, decided she was wrong and dismissed her, then changed his mind as he watched her walk out. Huston later said she was one of the few actresses who could make an entrance by leaving the room.
- The film shaped the caper picture that followed it: Jules Dassin's Rififi, which Leonard Maltin and others call the best heist film ever made, drew heavily on it, though Dassin insisted in later years that he only saw it after making his own.
