Product Description

A gang of small-time crooks plans and executes the "perfect crime" in this gritty, trend-setting drama co-written and directed by John Huston. The meticulous jewel heist goes off without a hitch, until a series of mishaps and double-crosses threatens to bring the whole thing down, splintering the gang and sparking a police manhunt. Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen, Sam Jaffe, and Marilyn Monroe (in one of her early major roles) star. 112 min. Standard; Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital mono, French Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English, Spanish, French; audio commentary; interview excerpt; theatrical trailer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29275 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2004-07-06
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: French
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 112 minutes

Features

• Oscar-winning director John Huston's comprehensive and widely-acclaimed Film Noir "The Asphalt Jungle" featured an extensive cast, including Sterling Hayden (later of Dr. Strangelove fame) and an early film performance by Marilyn Monroe. In this Film Noiric, now on DVD, a group of professional criminals put together an elaborate jewel heist, only to have it unravel disastrously (per Film Noir conv

Amazon.com essential video
The dark urban world of The Asphalt Jungle is one of the essential destinations in film noir, but be warned: despite tough guy Sterling Hayden's dreams of bucolic escape, there is no way out. John Huston directed this superbly calibrated crime classic, which displays his usual wry appreciation of fringies and down-and-outers. This time the task for Huston's eccentric ensemble is a jewel robbery, which--this being a Huston film--can't possibly work out as well as its plan. The cast includes Sam Jaffee, indelible as a criminal mastermind, and the pre-stardom Marilyn Monroe. Hayden plays the kind of mug he would revisit in Stanley Kubrick's The Killing, which is an informal homage to this film. And the film's look is definitive: both artful and gritty, it creates a noir landscape that traps its people just as surely as the tar pits trapped the dinosaurs. No wonder they call it noir. --Robert Horton