The Asphalt Jungle: A Screenplay

Dore Schary, then head of production at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, bought The Asphalt Jungle while it was still in manu­script in an effort to match the success Warner Brothers had enjoyed with Bur­nett's Little Caesarand High Sierra. The choice of Ben Maddow and John Huston as screenwriters assured the artistic success of the screenplay, for few writer/directors could have matched Huston's ability to develop these characters cine­matically.

It was a case of strength building upon strength. Burnett's fully devel­oped characters were transformed by Maddow and Huston into a screenplay of impressive immediacy. Indeed the portrayal of the criminals in splendid performances from Louis Calhern, Sam Jaffe, Sterling Hayden, James Whitmore, and Jean Hagen, led Bosley Crow­ther to lament, "If only it all weren't so corrupt " But the characters of Bur­nett, Maddow and Huston, don't permit us to romanticize about them or their activities. We share their professional pride in a robbery well planned and are silent accomplices to their mutual treachery.

The Asphalt Jungle was nominated for best screenplay by the Motion Picture Academy and for best-written American drama by the Writers Guild. John Hus­ton received a nomination for best direc­tor by the Academy. As a novel, The Asphalt Jungle has been translated into twelve languages.