Accident
Death of a Cyclist
Chinatown
Asphalt Jungle
Hotspot
In Cold Blood
Mulholland Drive
Key Largo
Vertigo
Sweet Smell of Success
True Detective
Kneeling Godess
The Set Up
Casino
The Prowler
Reckless Moment
Klute
The Killers (1946)
Razzia Sur La Chnouf
The rural backdrop to Asphalt Jungle is poignant. On the surface, the film was about the criminal doings of a group of losers who plan a heist that goes awry. Sam Jaffe steals the show. It is set against a backdrop of urban anomie that touches all the noir bases: danger, loneliness, duplicity, and greed. But it is also about dreams. Each character wants to escape the life that imprisons him. Sterling Hayden typifies the mood. A career stick up man, he just wants to go back to his boyhood home in Kentucky where he can raise horses and re-capture an idyllic past. But, in real noir fashion, reality steps in the way and shatters any illusions of a return to innocence. The final scene with Sam Jaffe at the jukebox watching a young girl gyrating to the music is sad. The cops are on his tail so he sits back and savors what will be his last contact with female blandishments and temptation. He knows or instinctively thinks the cops waited to arrest him so he could have his final few seconds of freedom to get a whiff of what he dreamed of. But it was not to be.
ReplyDeleteYeah the movie is full of so many memorable scenes as you've described. All underlining Huston's great talent.
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