Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

tlloydesq Let's break this film into 3 scenes: the intro and robbery – good. The ending – good. The wordy bit in the middle – awful.There is a reasonable (not brilliant) story in there and the cast make a good fist of that but the overly emotional scenes which bind the story together just don't work. That the score is overpowering doesn't help.But this film could have been so much better if it was tightened up. There are some decent jazz rhythms humming away in the background which could have been worked on and the dramatisation I refer to in the middle could also have been better arranged.On the plus side, the seedy setting suits the film and I appreciate the straightforward action – no need for choreographed martial arts when a few decent punches (carefully played in the background) do the job.I wouldn't go out of my way to watch this film again but...if you have 90 minutes to kill it is worth persevering with.

dougdoepke Three burglars steal a valuable necklace before encountering the proverbial web of deceit.The movie's a highly uneven work, reminding me as much of Kubrick's The Killing (1956) as the arty flashes of Welles and others. Clearly director Wendkos is reaching for an artistic style, but unlike Kubrick, Wendkos imitates more than he originates. Plus he's working with a ham-handed screenplay that lacks the clarity and flow of Kubrick's classic racetrack caper. Unfortunately, the narrative here tends to stumble along rather than evolve. For example, note the holes in just how the crooked cop puts his operation together, and how he knows as much as he knows. Nonetheless, the opening ten minutes covering the jewel theft is very effective, showing real promise. But the fluidity soon lapses.On a lighter note, I can't help but notice (like another reviewer) Mansfield's unusually bushy eyebrows that undercut her good looks. I'm wondering if they were natural and later pared back by a studio make-over or whether they resulted here from a myopic make-up man. In fact, without all the studio glamorizing of later years, I hardly recognized her.Anyway, for all its shortcomings, the movie remains a generally interesting curiosity that also affirms an unusual moral. Namely, that there can be more honor among thieves than among cops. Something Kubrick also knew.

Spikeopath The Burglar is directed by Paul Wendkos and adapted to screenplay by David Goodis from his own novel of the same name. It stars Dan Duryea, Jayne Mansfield, Martha Vickers, Peter Capell, Micky Shaughnessy and Stewart Bradley. Music is by Sol Kaplan and cinematography by Don Malkames.Nat Harbin (Dan Duryea) is the leader of a small gang of crooks who burgle a necklace from the home of a famous spiritualist. One of Nat's gang is Gladden (Mansfield), the daughter of the man who took Nat under his wing when Nat was an orphan. In return Nat has always looked after Gladden. But once the necklace is in their hands, the group begins to come apart, and with outside forces muscling their way in, it's probably not going to end well…It sat on the shelf for two years, where no buyer could be found, but then Jayne Mansfield became one of the "it" girls and The Burglar saw the light of day. Long out of circulation it became a film that noir enthusiasts greatly courted over the years, but now it's widely available was it worth the wait?Well it has proved to be a very divisive entry in the film noir universe. Undoubtedly it has style to burn, director Wendkos has observed some of his film noir peers and dripped their influences all over his movie; and not in a subtle way either. Sweaty close-ups, shock cutting, oblique angled frames and shadow adorned sequences attempt to put oomph in the narrative, while the newsreel opening and amusement park finale scream out that the film wants to be loved by the noir crowd.It's all very neatly constructed, and with Kaplan's bold brassy score laid over the top, it deserves its noir badge. But it does feel like art for arts sake at times, like Wendkos is working over time visually to compensate for a weak screenplay. It becomes evident that it wasn't a great idea to let Goodis adapt from his own novel, it needed a screenplay writer capable of putting more emotional carnage into the characterisations.There is no flow to the story and the actors often look lost and not sure where to take the source material to. Even the ever reliable noir hero Duryea is straining to make his character work, a victim of extraneous nonsense that doesn't seem to serve any purpose to plotting. Mansfield's performance is one of the hot topic divisive points, but I don't see how, it's awkward and her limitations as an actress are evident, no matter how foxy she looks. While Stewart Bradley in a key role just flat out can't act, something that draws some of the sting from the finale.The visual smarts and some nice location photography in Philly and Atlantic City ensure it's not a dead loss, while if you prepare yourself for a character study rather than a pulpy noir pot-boiler then that sets expectation levels correctly. But it's not one to recommend with confidence; even if Marty Scorsese is a fan! 5/10

deschreiber This film has a lot going for it. The opening few minutes are imaginative. Dan Duryea's acting is excellent, good enough to carry him through patches of hokey dialogue. Jayne Mansfield is nice to look at, with a pretty face, and curvaceous in a 50s sort of way before feminine beauty became thin as a rake (But what was the make-up department thinking giving her those outlandish eyebrows?). Never mind that she couldn't act. You have to enjoy the noirish atmosphere, and there are lots of outdoor scenes that catch the eye. The original music, by Sol Kaplan, is superb, or at least it would be on its own; as background it's a little too intrusive and occasionally over the top emotionally. The climax, with a deadly chase in an amusement park is a nice Hitchcock touch. Yet the movie doesn't quite work. It's hard to say exactly why. One big problem is the writing. Both the plot and the dialogue seem to have the same major flaws: at times hokey, at other times seeming to stall, leaving awkward silences or clumsy transitions. I think The Burglar might have been excellent if the studio had given more resources to developing the script, instead of leaving it in the hands of the man who wrote the novel the movie is based on.