Criterion release

John Huston was on a roll by 1950, his prior decade of filmmaking boasting titles like The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), and Key Largo (1948). Then comes The Asphalt Jungle, setting the standard for numerous films of its ilk, dotting its storyline with snappy lingo and quintessential crime movie components—bare light bulbs, dimmed back rooms, stoolies, heaters, box men, and fencers—and inspiring a slew of references, remakes, and not-so-subtle variations. “Every heist movie, every tale of downbeat criminals coming together in a foredoomed conspiracy under the guidance of a professorial mastermind, carries echoes of Huston’s film,” writes O’Brien, noting that its originality is “perhaps now harder to discern because its elements have been so widely appropriated.” Its originality maybe, but not its greatness. http://www.cutprintfilm.com/blu/the-asphalt-jungle/