Burnett also wrote The Asphalt Jungle, which precipitated an even better movie. A Humphrey Bogart film without Bogie, although he would have been too short for the role and anyway, Sterling Hayden was terrific. The scene in which he and another heavy size each other up like a pair of savage dogs sniffing one another has to be seen to be believed. The film is an immortal, credited with being the start of the Caper genre, giving John Huston his big break, as well as Monroe in her best supporting role to that time, and also launched Stanley Kubrick who shamelessly imitated it in his kick-start film The Killing. And the wonderful Sam Jaffe was there, remarkably cast as the criminal mastermind Riedenschneider.

RIEDENSCHNEIDER: One way or another we all work for our vice.

COBBY: I’ve seen Mister Emmerich operate for twenty years! He handles only the biggest cases He’s got two houses, four cars, a half dozen servants--
RIEDENSCHNEIDER: --and one blonde.

RIEDENSCHNEIDER: Experience has taught me never to trust a policeman. Just when you think one’s alright he turns legit.
EMMERICH: Crime is only a left-handed form of human endeavour.
COMMISSIONER HARDY: But suppose we had no police force, good or bad? Suppose we had--(turns off police radios) --just silence? Nobody to listen, nobody to answer. The battle’s finished. The jungle wins. The predatory beasts take over.