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Movie: Asphalt Jungle

Heist film by John Huston. Sam Jaffe, freshly out of prison, plans a bank robbery.  Goon is Sterling Hayden.  There is also a lock expert and a driver.  It all works, except it doesn't.  A gun goes off striking the lock breaker.  The man who will buy the diamonds is actually broke. Sterling Hayden gets shot in a confrontation over the payoff. Jaffe gets arrested after he stays to watch a teen-age girl dance one more dance at a cafe. (He's portrayed as a pervert.)

Everything about the movie was excellent except the performance of Sterling Hayden. He's just wooden. Surly all the time, sneering all the time--why Jean Hagen, his moll, loves him is beyond any rational explanation.  Too bad, because with a subtle performance this would be one of the all time great noir films.  As it is, it's still quite good.

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