The Burglar, directed by Paul Wendkos, written by David Goodis.
My goodness! One of the most brilliant films noir I've seen...I loved it! TCM has got to show it. I never heard of it until TCM released it for its Film Noir Classics III, though I see it was screened at one of the Roxy film noir fests. I don't know that it's ever been on TCM, but for those of you who can get hold of a copy, I recommend it super highly.
I liked my corny little title but good as Jayne is, it's Dan Duryea all the way. This is now my favorite performance by him. There is an odd tenderness, the kind of surprising gentleness like when Richard Widmark plays a nice guy. It's like seeing the real Dan behind a tired mask. He's not laughing, he's listening, and torturing himself and wandering, like Scottie in Vertigo. He does what he does and he can't say why, why he's so committed. I don't want to reveal more because it would give away the thrust of the story. Not only are plot and characters superbly delineated, but the visuals are stunning, very emotional and reminiscent of Welles and Fuller. Jayne is excellent and very touching as Martin Scorsese says in his intro to the DVD; she also gets to show some complexity and intelligence whereas I fully expected a more exploitative use of her attractions. This is the best thing I've seen her in, for sure.
Martha Vickers as the seductive "Della". You can see the effect she has on Dan.
I also want to mention how great Martha Vickers is as "Della". She made me laugh and touched me unexpectedly during her brief monologue, a run-down of her history to Dan's sympathetic ear. Such a pretty girl, too.
I love finding unexpected surprises like this. I admit I was wrong to pre-judge the movie based on a banal title. Plenty of twists that surprised me and it just gets better as it goes along to the end of the line.
Dan Duryea as "Nathaniel" and Jayne Mansfied as the unusually named "Gladden".
