The Asphalt Jungle

The Asphalt Jungle is a 1950 American heist film noir directed and cowritten by John Huston and starring Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen, James Whitmore, Sam Jaffe, John McIntire and Marilyn Monroe in one of her earliest roles. Based on the 1949 novel by W. R. Burnett, it tells the story of a jewel robbery in a Midwestern city. Produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the film was released on May 12, 1950. It was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, and Huston won a National Board of Review Award for his direction. At the 1950 Venice Film Festival, Huston was nominated for the Golden Lion and Sam Jaffe won the Best Actor Award. Retrospective reviews of the film have been highly positive, with several critics describing it as one of the most influential works in the crime film genre, and one of Huston's best films. The film spawned a television series of the same name that aired on ABC in 1961. In 2008, The Asphalt Jungle was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".