MovieChat Forums > The Asphalt Jungle (1950) Discussion > God, the worst director's comment EVER!!

God, the worst director's comment EVER!!

posted 20 years ago by tsweeney123x
34 replies | jump to latest

Who the hell had the bright idea of hiring a stuffy university professor to do the audio commentary? Drew Casper PLEASE DON'T DO ANOTHER COMMENTARY!!!! This guy is giving us a snoozerama lecture on the history of MGM while fifteen minutes of film passes by before he finally comments on what's happening on screen!! They have James Whitmore on the commentary and they actually let his scenes roll by while this boring professor blabs on... God, you wish Sterling Hayden would blast Drew Casper! This is another example of the goofs at Warner Bros. producing their DVDs on the cheap side. I bet some former college student of Drew Casper got a job to do the DVD and they hired the goof. This is insulting to John Huston to have such a lousy DVD and crappy extras. Someone should fire the DVD branch of Warner Bros. Their DVDs are the worst. Have you see the Maltese Falcon yet? Horrible!! One of the all-time greatest films and one of the worst DVDs. BOOOOOO Warner Bros!!

[–] jacquesremi54 20 years ago

Sad to hear that. Director's (et al) comments are valuable for film studies or just for interest's sake. I am, in fact, searching for the DVD of this great film, one of my top ten. Haven't yet managed to find a copy that wasn't vastly overpriced. Any ideas where to find it; either on line or otherwise? I'm in Eastern Ontario, Canada. Is the DVD a good copy (image quality, sound...)?

jacquesremi

[–] diddleysquat 20 years ago

Jacquesremi.... You can get the DVD version of "Asphalt Jungle" new and used on Amazon.com at a standard DVD price. The earlier release was part of a collection, and that made it expensive. Regular price is $18, used ones start at $9. There are copies for about $10 on half.com. Some priced under $10 are often available on eBay.

[–] Noir-It-All 20 years ago

I felt the same way about the commentary. Asphalt Jungle was one of five film noirs in a boxed set I received for the holidays. I enjoyed the commentary for the other films; it was like watching the film with a knowledgable person. But, I turned off the commentary for the Asphalt Jungle because it was clear the professor was not watching the film as he commmented! Some day, to receive the benefit of his knowledge, I will listen to the commentary but without watching the film.

[–] atomicstuffing 20 years ago

He does get a little too film-book heavy in the first 30 minutes, but after that, he does beginto comment on the specific scenes. He'll go back and forth from then on.

Apart from the fact he sounds exactly like Woody Allen which occasionally amused me, I did like the informative commentary. I personally learned quite a bit of info about Huston and the actors involved. (interesting that one of the actors said Marilyn Monroe was painfully shy and insecure back then)

And the commentator is right: film screenwriters should look to Huston films to learn -- really learn-- how to write great dialogue. A fantastic script.

[–] snucker 20 years ago

his commentary was ok, he did have some insight in his scene analysis. what was interesting (or annoying given my mood) was his occasional excitement and nerdy enthusiasm for the film....particularly when he goes on and on about houston's genius unconventional story telling of 6 groups of protagonists! my god! that's never been done before, so unconventional! give me a break.

[–] Eightythreeyearoldguy 14 years ago

"Any ideas where to find it; either on line or otherwise?"

LOL...I'm sure you found a copy during the last six years. However, for anybody new to this thread who hasn't yet seen the movie, your local library is likely to have a copy that you can rent for three days for free.

I'm the kind of guy, when I move - watch my smoke. But I'm gonna need some good clothes though.

[–] jellyree 10 years ago

jzathajenious thanks!

Perhaps the OP just wants to reach out for some sense of community.

[–] FilmTrojan 20 years ago

You should try having him for a professor. He's a kind of a classical snob...

[–] djensen1 19 years ago

That first half hour of marveling that MGM--the Tiffany studio!--made this movie was really annoying. That stuff is okay to work in along the way, but I don't want a lecture from a commentary, I want insight into casting, locations, dialog, and what is happening and why. From a film historian, I expect comparisons to other movies in the same genre, by the same director, or with the same actors. And for a classic, I expect some context about what was going on historically in the culture and in Hollywood.

This wasn't the worst commentary I've heard, tho. I think This is Spinal Tap and The Goonies share that honor.

=D=

[–] Noir-It-All 19 years ago

I agree the professor was annoying. I never did listen to the entire commentary. I like comments to be like watching the film with an educated friend. But, when that friend is concerned about something not shown in the film, the commentary is boring. I didn't agree with the commentator in the DVD of Murder, My Sweet, but at least he commented about the film. Another annoyance was in Night and the City. During the showdown between Helen and Maggie, the commentator was on another topic until the very end. Otherwise, the comments targeted the action on screen.

[–] jzathajenious 19 years ago

ok,firstly the title of this thread is incorrect: its not the director, its a movie professor, and its commentary, not comment.

Gotta say i quite enjoyed the commentary, gave me some good insights into the actors and huston's movie making technique. one thing, i would have liked to hear more from the actor who played Gus, his input was very good but far too short. personally, i dont like it when the director focuses ONLY on what is happening on screen, eg. "notice the lighting in this scene etc etc"...this is obvious stuff that i can see for myself, although i dont mind it from time to time.

But by no means is this even close to the worst commentary ever.

[–] bemanning-1 19 years ago

I enjoyed the commentary by the professor and the inserts by Whitmore. I do notice that academics tend to make an exciting subject sound dull. (See the Film Noir Reader, a collection of essays compiled by Alain and Ursini. ZZZZ)

But, I felt the prof's comments in the first half hour provided context for the time the film was made, the atmosphere and a bit of the politics of who was making decisions at MGM and why.

I think the Worst Commentary award still goes to Carrot Top for his flick.

[–] IceGambit 19 years ago

I was excited about the commentary given my love of the film, but it was very dry. I was looking for intense scene-by-scene analysis of the visual style and dialogue, rather than all the historical context.

For those interested in Noir commentary/analysis, check out the podcast called "Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir." They have had about 20 episodes 30 minutes each focusing on an important film in the Noir style.

This wasn't the worst ever commentary, though - Chuck Heston's intermittent one on the old DVD-18 of Ben-Hur (not the new 4 disc set) was pretty slow, or a couple of the commentaries on the Bond movies would probably take that non-honor.

[–] Noir-It-All 15 years ago

IceGambit thank you for the heads up about the podcast, "Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir." I've listened to most of them by now.

The best commentary I ever heard was William Friedkin's for The Narrow Margin.

"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne

[–] sonofabird 19 years ago

"This wasn't the worst commentary I've heard, tho. I think This is Spinal Tap and The Goonies share that honor."

This is Spinal Tap? Please tell me you're not referring to the one where they have them all in character, because that is probably one the best, most unique commentaries out there...unless you're a film snob.

Drew Casper also did the commentary for White Heat...eh, I've heard better, I've heard worse.

"Always look on the bright side of life. Do do. Do do do do do do."

[–] Wokel 19 years ago

I listened to Dr. Drew before on the commentary for Possessed. Yeah, not too good. I tend to dislike these scholarly structural analysises cause you know, structure ain't everything, but Roger Ebert on Citizen Kane and F.X. Feeley on The Towering Inferno (?!) are worthwhile, not the least because they betray a giddy ethusiasm for the subject matter rather than try and impress you with how much they know.

Worst commentary track though is the one for the Kino restoration of Metropolis. If you can sit through that thing without shoving penicils up your nose to cut off brain fuctioning, well, you're made of stronger stuff than I.

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] Scorpio_65 13 years ago

I completely agree with you, djensen1; there were a few interesting factoids but Drew Casper didn't really provide much more than anything that we could've Googled. He also wasn't one of the more articulate commentators to which I've listened. A really great commentary that I listened to recently was Foster Hirsch's for House of Strangers (1949). He gave interpretations into staging, lighting, camera angles and how they related to character importance as the plot was happening. He also provided a brief history on how the film was given a limited release due to its story association with Bank of America's history and how the President (I believe) of Fox at the time encouraged this limited release due to Bank of America's funding of their films. These were great factoids but Hirsch doesn't get swept away with historical facts like Casper does with The Asphalt Jungle.

[–] aag12345-1 18 years ago

I consider myself fairly intellectual, but I agree that this Commentary was some of the most overintellectualized drivel I've ever heard. I literally stopped twice because I was dozing off and went back to it.

This post is correct, the guy on the commentary blathered on for 20 minutes about irrelevant history of the studios without paying any attention to the film that was playing as he was talking. About 30% of the commentary contained interesting information, the rest was useless blather.

"Boy that was really exciting. I bet you're a big Lee Marvin fan aren't ya."

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] brendan_gallagher_2001 18 years ago

Sunset Blvd. (1950) has a great commentary.

[–] hcrapwhitman 18 years ago

When it comes to great commentary, 'Hugh Grant' is the ant's trousers. The chap's hilarious. I find his commentaries more entertaining than his films. In fact, he'd be better off doing radio.

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] hcrapwhitman 18 years ago

What has he commented?

His films.

[–] mfast35302 18 years ago

For a movie the stature of Asphalt Jungle, with it's spectacular cast of giants, it's awesome screenplay, and brilliant direction of John Huston, the DVD commentary production deserved nothing less than the classiness of all the above. They should have pulled out all the stops to have James Whitmore
narrate, with occasional comments from the few remaining cast members, John Maxwell IV, who played Dr. Swanson, and Teresa Celli, who played Louis Ciavelli's wife Maria. Just think how great it could have been!

[–] HillieBoliday 18 years ago

I know I am 3 years late with this; BUT IT IS THE WORSE COMMENTARY I HAVE EVER
HEARD!! This is one of my favorite movies (I have it on video), and when I got
the DVD with the commentary on it, I popped it right in and proceeded to "PUKE"
when I started to listen to Casper's dull, uninformative, uninteresting as H*ll commentary!!! I was so disappointed, and wished I could just erase him
right off of the track!!!

WHAT A WASTE OF GOOD TIME, A GOOD FILM, AND GOOD MONEY!!!

"OOO...I'M GON' TELL MAMA!"

[–] freshy 17 years ago

I know!!! It was HORRID. I had to turn it off after 10 mins. The commentary, not the movie which I actually enjoyed.

[–] TeenVamp 14 years ago

Drew Casper seems like a nice guy but yes his commentaries are always a little boring.

My favorite is Greg Mank he always makes the commentary interesting and FUN. He doesn't do Noir though just good old horror movies.

[–] paul_johnr 14 years ago

I just listened to the commentary today and I'm a little more moderate in my view. There are moments when Casper is really dragging through academic material and not focusing enough on the film itself, but I did learn things about Huston and the film that I otherwise wouldn't have known.

I always listen to the DVD commentaries because I want to get as much as I can out of the DVDs I buy, but I never seem to find these as replacements for a documentary on how the film was made (IMO). I would rather see a half-hour or 45-minute program on how the script was written, how the actors were brought into the cast, and how the filming was done. I would much rather see this in a separate program from the film. I am just a filmgoer, whereas a commentary track is much more suited to students of film.

[–] Eightythreeyearoldguy 14 years ago

I had the humble opinion that the powers that be wanted to treat this as one of the absolute great films of all time and felt that a prestigious college professor's academic commentery was called for. Too bad it doesn't quite work.

I'm the kind of guy, when I move - watch my smoke. But I'm gonna need some good clothes though.

[–] Phillip Marlowe 14 years ago

Casper is alway pretty boring on his commentaries and is also, very obviously, quite full of himself.