A Little Larceny

This chapter looks at the '50s heist picture—a subgenre of '50s gangster noir—examining John Huston's Asphalt Jungle (1950). In Huston's film, the criminal gang resembles nothing so much as a corporation that mimics the increasing organization and alienation of the “age of anxiety.” Subsequent noir heist films elaborate on this topic, dramatizing the conflict between the individual and the crime syndicate. In these “capers,” the “foot soldier” frequently finds himself caught between the police and the boss—the Law and “Murder, Inc.”—a dire predicament where, as always seems to be the case in the overdetermined universe of classic noir, there's no way out.