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By Sean Axmaker
Special to MSN Movies
You know the drill: A handful of professionals. An impregnable fortress. An elaborate plan that calls for a veritable concert of individual efforts performed with split-second timing. A fortune at the end of the mission. Oh, yes, and the getaway, so often the loose thread in an otherwise well-crafted plan.
The proto-heist films and film noir classics "The Killers" (1946) and "Criss-Cross" (1949), both starring Burt Lancaster as a naïve street-thief dazzled by the tawdry charms of false femmes, established the essential elements. However, those prototypes played down actual events in favor of the duplicity and doom surrounding the crime. It took John Huston's definitive "The Asphalt Jungle" (1950) to perfect the heist film formula and throw the spotlight on the meticulous planning and execution of the caper. In the process he transformed what was once a simple robbery drama of cops and crooks into a veritable platoon film filled with the shady soldiers of the urban underworld.
The genre proved irresistible. Stanley Kubrick tried his hand in "The Killing" (1956), a race-track caper with a cast of B-movie lowlifes working like a well-oiled machine. Steve McQueen took it upscale as the high society criminal chess-master in "The Thomas Crown Affair," rewriting the unwritten code that demanded that crime doesn't pay in the process. Clint Eastwood marched the heist movie into WWII with "Kelly's Heroes" (1970), sort of a "The Dirty Dozen" played for lighthearted laughs with a fortune in gold at the end of the mission.
Lately, the heist film has seen a veritable renaissance, with the remakes "The Thomas Crown Affair," "The Italian Job," "The Good Thief," and even "The Ladykillers." The crown jewel of the heist revival was the Rat Pack redux of "Ocean's Eleven," with George Clooney as the adorable bad boy who masterminds the impossible ultimate score. Brad Pitt played his smart-alecky second in command, and he had a cast of players with as much personality as talent. Now, Spike Lee has decided to add his fingerprints to the genre, with "Inside Man."
Here's a look back at 10 essential heist classics: a master class in how to
-- and how not to -- plan and execute the perfect crime. 
"The Asphalt Jungle" (1950)
The Job: A jewel heist
The Team: Sam Jaffe is the criminal mastermind; Sterling Hayden is the dim but devotedly loyal
muscle; James Whitmore the hunchback getaway driver; Anthony Caruso the safecracker; and Louis Calhern the spineless lawyer
The
Flaw: Jaffe has a weakness for young girls and he stops to get a gander
when he should be getting away.
The Quote: "Crime is only a
left-handed form of human endeavor."
The Skinny: Hollywood
had executed heists before, but never so meticulously, so methodically, so...
perfectly. Jaffe inspires his brotherhood of thugs to reach for the stars -- the
biggest haul of their career -- with a meticulously worked plan that calls on
each of them to do what they do best, and do it better than they ever have
before. It's the Godfather of heist movies, and John Huston directs it with the
lean, unsentimental steeliness that defines his best movies. Even as the perfect
crime collapses in betrayal and the irrational impulses of human nature, "The
Asphalt Jungle" is a model of elegant construction, street-level tragedy, and
poetic justice. It practically created the caper as we know it. Also, watch for
a young and breathy Marilyn Monroe, who sparkles as the pneumatic
ornament on Calhern's arm.
The Job: Ritzy rocks in the safe of a high-class Paris
jewelry store
The Team: Down-on-his-luck but dapper jewel
thief Tony le Stéphanois (Jean Servais), his protégé Jo the
Swede, an ambitious pimp, and an imported Milanese safecracker (played by
director Jules Dassin himself, under a pseudonym)
The Flaw: The safecracker's joie de vivre gets the better
of restraint and modesty.
The Quote: "I liked you, Macaroni.
But you know the rules."
The Skinny: Haggard, worn Tony le
Stéphanois (Servais) wears his threadbare suits with elegance but he's down to
his last francs when he hatches his "perfect" plan. The legendary 35-minute
heist scene is thrillingly executed without a single word spoken. Every saw cut
and scrape raises the soundtrack like a siren; every tiny slip in the silent
operation threatens to sound off the alarms. American expatriate Dassin's tale
of honor among thieves is painstakingly shot on location with an eye for the
dingy beauty of the Paris underworld. The patient professionalism and romantic
code of the "good" crooks -- and the merciless toll it exacts -- established the
tone and style of French crime films for years, and set the bar for all heist
films to come.
Next: "Bob Le Flambeur," "The Italian Job" and more ----->
