Once a Thief

A typically low-budget quota-quickie that is absorbing to begin with but becomes laboured halfway through. Perhaps that's why there are so few other movies set in the exciting world of paint manufacturing...

John Stuart has a new spraying process for paint, which he takes to Derek Gorst at Frederick Culley's firm. Gorst is a sharp dealer, edging into outright thievery, and Stuart winds up in prison, with Gorst taking the credit for his work. When he gets out of prison, he goes to Gorst, and half threatens him, half inveigles him into a new contract, where he works on improvements to make the process practical. However, suspicion clings to him.

It's a pretty good Quota Quickie, despite the presence of Ronald Shiner. He was better known 20 years later, when he was a dull and usually uninteresting screen comic. Here's he 's a dull and rather uninteresting rotter, engaged to Nancy Burne, Culley's niece. His ineptness triggers several key plot points.

I was rather surprised that, trifle though it is, this movie was ably directed by George Pearson. Once he had been an important figure in British films, directing Betty Balfour in SQUIBS and sequels. Talkies hit him hard, and he was reduced to quota quickies so cheap that they were nearly unwatchable. Here the lighting is good, the camerawork and editing very good, and the sets fully decorated. I attribute this to his producer, Anthony Havelock-Allan; it's one of a dozen pictures he produced in his first year with that title, and he was quite obviously willing and able to get enough money to let Pearson do a good job.

ONCE A THIEF is a British crime drama from 1935 with an interesting and rather in-depth storyline to recommend it. The film features the likable John Stuart playing a mild-mannered chemist whose fortunes change for the better when he's given a job interview at a paint company. Unfortunately he doesn't have the money to buy a suit, but when he finds a discarded purse he decides to borrow the cash for his own needs, although he later returns it in full to the owner. Unfortunately for him, this action soon catches up with him...

This film offers something a little different from the usual country house murder mysteries that British film companies usually made around the middle of the decade. The story feels quite modern and the situations in which Stuart finds himself are readily identifiable to the viewer. It also gives the director a chance to explore class divide, the face of modern industry, and the justice system. Despite the darkness of some of the plot twists, ONCE A THIEF has a lightness of touch that makes it an easy watch and for once the romantic material doesn't drag it down. Watch out for Ronald Shiner's brief but important cameo.

A slick little potboiler in which the ascent within the paint industry of the jaunty young hero (played by a jaunty young John Stuart) is rudely interrupted after he is wrongly accused of stealing a bracelet.

Interesting production design in the hands of veteran director George Pearson keep one watching.