Tonight on Amazon: There would be no Ocean’s Eleven or Elusive without this movie

Tonight on Amazon: There would be no Ocean’s Eleven or Elusive without this movie

If you like heist movies and their aftermath, you should definitely catch this thriller directed by John Huston and considered an absolute classic of the genre: When the City Sleeps (1950). It’s available on Amazon Prime Video if you’re also a Warner Pass subscriber.

Sterling Hayden

Edwin “Doc” Riedenschneider is released from prison and immediately plans to rob a jewelry store, which will net him a modest sum of half a million dollars. For this he invites a team of specialists consisting of a safe cracker, a driver, a handyman and a fencer. But his carefully laid plan is thwarted by an event beyond his control…

When the City Sleeps, or The Asphalt Jungle in its original version, is a heist film that has inspired many films that have adopted its structure. So we follow a convict who gets out of prison and resumes crime / assembling a team / planning a heist / carrying out a heist / managing the consequences of their actions.

An archetype that would be appropriated by many films in the following years, to the point where When the City Sleeps is even considered to be the originator of a subgenre of detective cinema: the heist film.

Marilyn the beginner

The feature film is also notable for a small appearance by Marilyn Monroe, who was then under contract to MGM and early in her career. She replaces Lola Albright, who turned down the role of a corrupt lawyer’s mistress.

Finally, and above all, When the City Sleeps develops the psychology of its characters, which allows the film to go beyond its established plot, its archetype, and become much more.

Everything is brilliantly shot and lit by John Huston and his cinematographer Harold Rosson, who worked on The Wizard of Oz and would later sign Singin’ in the Rain.

Source: Allocine

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