From: radioacti...@gmail.com   
      
   While scrutinizing John Huston's exquisite "The Asphalt Jungle" the other day   
   for about the dozenth time--it was screened on TCM as part of its 31 Days of   
   Oscar series, earning Sam Jaffe a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his   
   third-best role* ever--I    
   was again confronted with some simply inexplicable slang.   
      
   That is, no fewer than FIVE TIMES, the character Dix (wonderfully portrayed by   
   sailor-first-actor-second Sterling Hayden's**) says some variation of, "He was   
   tryin' to bone me!"  But it's NEVER clear what the character Dix--essayed by   
   Mr. "Precious    
   Bodily Fluids" himself--MEANS by the odd phrase!   
      
   And try as I might--including consultation of the usually-comprehensive Urban   
   Dictionary--I can find ZERO mention anywhere of what the slang infinitive "to   
   bone" means.  (And yeah, yeah, even good ol' naive me is aware of the   
   well-worn SEXUAL meaning of    
   the verb...but hey, TAJ was a 1950 film, when the dreaded Hollywood Code would   
   have nixed Dix's quintuple employment of the word, had it meant THAT.)   
       
   Taking it purely from the context in which the character Dix used it, it SEEMS   
   to have meant he was being conned or otherwise extorted in some sort of way,   
   but again, that wasn't at all clear.  (A wise pal counsels me that this was   
   merely some early '50s    
   slang that just never caught on despite the serious success of the film, but   
   I'm not sure he's correct about that.)   
      
   Anyone else wonder about this dialogue quirk in this terrific, everlasting   
   film noir?  (And yes, I know some film historians instead classify it as a   
   "heist" picture, but whatever slot you fit it into, "The Asphalt Jungle" was   
   Hollywood at some of its    
   mid-century finest.)   
      
   BRYAN STYBLE/Florida   
   ===================   
   * His best two, in my view, were as Professor Barnhart in "The Day the Earth   
   Stood Still", and later as Dr. Zorba opposite young Dr. Ben Casey on ABC all   
   those seasons.   
   ** Died Friday, May 23, 1986...as it happened, the day after Arlene Francis   
   husband Martin Gabel--and her frequent co-panelist on "What's My Line?"   
   !--expired at 74.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)