The Asphalt Jungle (1950 John Huston)

Sterling Hayden, Sam Jaffee (for me the billing order here is correct), Louis Calhern, Marc Lawrence (the numbers man),  Jean Hagen, James Whitmore (bar owner), Anthony Caruso (who mixes his own 'soup'!), Barry Kelley ('You can never trust a bent cop - you never know when they're going to go straight'), Marilyn Monroe (looking very slender), Brad Dexter (private eye).

Adapted by Huston and Ben Maddow from novel by W.R. Burnett (career spans Scarface to the Great Escape), including great dialogue like the above examples, 'he boned me', 'behind the walls' etc. Also very well acted by all. Hayden unexpectedly turns out to be a character of integrity, which is why Jaffee's 'Doctor' enlists and trusts him in the first place, and the ending featuring horses is touching. (Would it be too pretentious to suggest it anticipates Au Hasard Balthazar? Probably.)

Marries the old familiar film noir creep with the Huston situation in which a group of disparate characters are brought together, only then to unravel.

Shot by Harold Rossen and scored by Miklós Rózsa (not that there is much music in it). The definitive heist movie: ironic, tragic, taut and tense.