This film noir masterpiece tells the story of a cleverly planned jewelry heist by Doc (Sam Jaffe), a consummate professional financed by a crooked lawyer (Louis Calhern), and carried out by a carefully selected group of criminals. But the division, mistrust and greed will make the master plan frustrate.
Directed by John Huston, with a magnificent script adapted from Ben Maddow, who would soon find himself on the blacklist, The concrete jungle offers a fascinating contrast between a classic criminal plot and the problematic emotional reality of its characters.
The cast features a superb Sam Jaffe, in one of his last roles before he was blacklisted and nominated for an Academy Award. We also find Sterling Hayden, shortly before he testifies before the House Un-American Activities Committee, as a bully with a certain moral sense and a dedicated girlfriend, played by Jean Hagen, in the most tender and heartbreaking role of him. Completing the cast we have a young Marilyn Monroe, who shines in each of her sequences.
Projection in original version (English) with subtitles in Spanish.
This film series aims to explore one of the most complex and convulsive times in the history of cinema: the witch hunt in Hollywood. In the late 40s and 50s, film producers, directors, screenwriters, actors, musicians, and critics became the targets of spectacular persecution by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). The process, and the media circus that it entailed, profoundly affected the film industry and for years dictated how and who could work in Hollywood.
This selection of masterpieces, released between 1940 and 1960, offers us the opportunity to see in detail the evolution of the cinema of the great Hollywood studios, as well as delve into the turbulent sociopolitical climate in which they were shot and released.
1October 5: La Loba (The Little Foxes, 1941, William Wyler)
October 22: Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtiz)
October 29: Laura (1944, Otto Preminger)
November 5: One Day in New York (On the Town, 1949, Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly)
November 12: The asphalt jungle (The Asphalt Jungle, 1950, John Huston)
November 19: Alone in the face of danger (High Noon, 1952, Fred Zinnemann)
November 26: Roman Holiday (1953, William Wyler)
December 3: The law of silence (On the Waterfront, 1954, Elia Kazan)
December 10: Fugitives (The Defiant Ones, 1958, Stanley Kramer)
December 17: Spartacus (Spartacus, 1960, Stanley Kubrick)
Cycle curator: Sibley Labandeira