The Pitch: Rififi
but made first and under the guidance of the Hays code.
I really liked
this movie, but dammit, all the details escape me only a few days later. That's
either on me for not paying closer attention or on the movie for not being
distinctive enough. I feel comfortable blaming myself.
This does belong
to one of my favorite story types: the perfect plan falling apart. It's an
atypical story structure, because it virtually necessitates that the key event
(the heist) happen earlier in the movie rather than as the climax at the end. A
movie like Reservoir Dogs almost bypasses the robbery altogether. I
enjoy the variety of ways the men in The Asphalt Jungle get caught*. A plan,
even a good one, can fall apart in so many ways.
*OK, I can't be
the only person who thinks this. I have the impression that it was incredibly
easy to get away with crimes as late as in the 1950s. I don't really understand
how investigations worked in a pre-digital age. My impression is that if you
look generic enough, then once you crossed state lines, it was very easy to
avoid capture. Surely that isn't the case, but it's one of those weird hang-ups
I have; kind of like how I still imagine
everything that happened from 1930-1960 was in black and white.
I liked all the
performances in the movie. It was a nice surprise to see Marilyn Monroe show up
(her first role). I didn't realize she was in it. John Huston is quickly rising
in my director rankings. Frankly, the only thing working against this movie is that
I like Rififi so much better and saw it first.
Verdict: Strongly Recommend
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