User reviews

A showy medium has a set of fancy jewels. Dan Duryea, THE BURGLAR, intends to steal them with the help of gang member Jayne Mansfield. Will the stresses and strains of the criminal lifestyle wreck their lives, or will the gang finally make the big score that will let them all retire?

This is one of those movies, following in the wake of the Asphalt Jungle, that shows how the tiny character flaws of the criminals involved in a caper all work to mess up their enterprise. If you like the genre, you'll like this. If you are not a noir/crime movie enthusiast, you might determine that all this seems pretty derivative from better movies. The director has definitely seen his Orson Welles movies (Citizen Kane and Lady from Shanghai are sampled here), but he only has a B-movie plot to drive the action. Later in the movie, this becomes a problem when the mechanics of inevitable doom require Duryea to show an implausible lack of judgment.

Nevertheless, Dan Duryea, who plays his role without an ounce of his usual scuzzy smarm, responds quite well to being cast somewhat against type. Jayne Mansfield, who had not yet developed her inflatable sex doll persona (this movie was shot well before Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?), does well with a fairly nuanced part that makes use of her looks, but does not require her to be either stupid or sleazy. The movie, when not being overly showy with its visuals, gets in some great location shooting in both Philadlphia and Atlantic City.

This is worth seeing, if you like crime movies. But you will get the feeling there was a lot of potential that went unfulfilled here.

This is one of those extravagantly stylized late-period noirs, one which palpitates with flamboyant cinematic technique. It belongs in the same club as those other exaggerated, self-consciously arty noirs of the late 50s/early 60s, like Touch of Evil, Kiss Me Deadly, Blast of Silence and Sam Fuller's contemporaneous contributions to the genre. Wendkos directs like a recent A+ film school graduate showing off every Hitchcock and Welles trick he's learned -- there are many stunning edits (he is also credited as the film's editor), several strikingly composed shots, and a suitably seedy background (the fact that the crooks' hideout is right next to a railway line full of speeding streamliners is a boon). At the same time, he toes the studio line of narrative clarity and cohesive action scenes enough to make this suitable viewing for the non-buff (one can see why he spent most of his years in television, but at the same time could dazzle with over-the-top effects in The Mephisto Waltz.) Fans of Atlantic City's Steel Pier are in for a treat in the film's climax (which owes a bit too much to The Lady from Shanghai) -- we even get to see the diving horse. But notably, we also see the soggy marshes that border the city and reflect the protagonists' own situational quagmire. It may not have the integrity of the more subtly devastating noirs of the Siodmak 40s, but it has its own postmodern tradition to uphold. It's worth picking this one up even on the third-generation dupes that are now in circulation; a wide-screen dvd restoration is definitely in order.

For a chance to look at Atlantic City in the Fifties before the casinos moved in The Burglar is the film for you. Dan Duryea stars in this small B film from Columbia as a professional burglar looking to make a big score with a necklace robbed from a fake spiritualist.

Duryea's team consists of Peter Capell jewelry expert, Mickey Shaughnessy muscle and hormones, and Jayne Mansfield who gives his hormones their exercise. Jayne's kind of a legacy for Duryea, if you can believe he thinks of her as kind of a kid sister. Duryea was raised by Jayne's father who was also a burglar and taught him the trade.

The robbery goes, but Duryea is spotted by cop Stewart Bradley who's on the take. So he has real police as well as this crooked one looking to get in on the score.

You'll note the similarities between The Burglar and The Asphalt Jungle. Both Duryea here and Sterling Hayden in the John Huston classic seem to be drawn inexorably to disaster. The difference is that Huston had that MGM shine to his film and this is a routine B film that's a cut above average.

Usually when a film is held up for a couple of years for release that spells problems. But The Burglar shot in 1955 and released in 1957 is moody and atmospheric and a nifty noir feature. Jayne Mansfield gets some competition in the sex pot department from Martha Vickers best remembered as Lauren Bacall's psychotic sister in The Big Sleep. She's working with Bradley who's working on Mansfield. All I can say is nice work if you can get it.

Around this time there was an attempt to make a lead of Dan Duryea, but he never really transitioned into that category. But The Burglar represents a fine bit of work from him and the rest of the cast.

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.

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.

From 1957, "The Burglar" is a psychological noir starring Dan Duryea, Jayne Mansfield, Martha Vickers, Mickey Shaughnessy, Phoebe McKay, Peter Capell.

The beginning of the film is action-oriented, with Gladden (Mansfield) appearing at the door of a famous medium, Sister Sara and being invited in for lunch. She's there to case the joint aor her guardian Nat (Duryea) and find where Sister stores her gorgeous sapphire necklace.

The crew, led by Nat (Duryea) has fifteen minutes, during which time Sister watches a news show, to rob her bedroom safe. Nat does it, but not before the police see him and his car.

Tensions mount immediately. Nat thinks the best thing to do is wait for things to "cool down." Baylock (Capell) is hyper to get out as fast as possible, and Dohmer (Shaughnessy) keeps leering at Gladden until finally, Nat has to send her to Atlantic City.

However, it's not just the police after the necklace, and soon real problems develop.

Paul Wendkos directed this - it was his first feature, and his editing and camera technique attracted immediate attention and won him a contract at Columbia.

Dark and depressing, "The Burglar" focuses on Nat's psychological issues stemming from his love and loyalty to a man who took him in - Gladden's father - and his promise to take care of her. It's heavy going.

The film is very well done, even if it's not the most exciting thing you'll ever see. Dan Duryea gives a wonderful performance as a man with a conscience. Mansfield is deglamorized as the young Gladden. Though she's obviously beautiful and has a great figure, she appears to wear very little makeup and does not push her sex appeal.

Very Hitchcockian ending.

Dan Duryea & Jayne Mansfield star in this film noir from 1957. A lengthy jewel heist is at the core of this caper as its pulled off at the film's start w/the remainder of the film having the thieves wait for the hand-off so they can get paid. Mansfield, Duryea's half sister, is sent away while they wait where she meets a guy & carries on a mini romance while Duryea does the same w/a woman, played by Martha Vickers, but what the thieves don't know is that they're being played from both ends leading up to a taut but satisfying conclusion. Made almost w/a European sensibility of action & release (the long waiting period that takes up the bulk of the narrative), this film's plot has a weird time signature to it & it works giving Duryea a good part to sink his teeth into (he usually favors the cackling villain roles) where he's at the end of his rope & suffers for it. Mansfield (mother of Law & Order: SVU's Mariska Hartigay) shows she's more than a pretty face giving nuance & detail to her small but pivotal role.

It's flashy and hard boiled with a soft runny middle, but the movie is a good egg and worth seeing. Mansfield is young and fresh and the villain's a real creep. Overall worth a watch.

I saw this film a long time ago and was tremendously impressed, almost hynotized, by its technique. It was directed by Paul Wendkos, who's since gone on to a successful career in television, but who was for a while considered an up and coming director of movies. The stars, Dan Duryea and Jayne Mansfield, never quite achieved the kind of success many had envisioned for them. Duryea's career was sidetracked by Richard Widmark, and Mansfield never replaced Marilyn Monroe. Part of the charm of this film is watching small timers play small timers in a small movie that didn't cost a lot of money and which few people saw or want to see because no one connected with it is famous (though Jayne has her fans I guess). To make matters worse, the film is arty, full of offbeat camera angles and strange lighting that sometimes makes people look startled, as if they're continually having their picture taken. It's a tawdry tale about little people with big problems, and it works. For all I know it could be a work of art. The story is mostly about a jewel robbery, but it's also about the strange, almost incestuous relationship between Dan and Jayne, which both does and doesn't have a whole lot to do with jewels. There is a very bad guy involved who comes across like a young Senator Joe McCarthy. There are scenes in an amusement park; and more scenes in an empty stadium. I'm not sure why. The films is dazzling and ambitious and pretentious, so much so that it's beyond mere film noir as such; it's more like art noir.

All the characters seem believable, if occasionally overwrought, and Mansfield seems refreshingly like a human being. Many interesting edits keep up the pacing, and the angles are rarely less than exceptional. Easy to see why Marty Scorsese likes this one, and so do we.

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

"The Burglar" is a film that sat on the shelf for two years before they released it. This is an indication that the film was poor and the studio had no faith in it. So why did they finally release it? Most likely because in the interim....the co-star, Jayne Mansfield, hit it big...and that made the film more marketable. Take a look at Mansfield in the picture...she is a much plainer and less platinum lady in "The Burglar" as her nw familiar image hadn't yet been created.

The story is a noir thriller...with essentially no thrills. While you'd normally think a lot of energy and time in the movie would be about the burglarly, it wasn't. The crime seems too easy...almost anticlimactic. Instead, the film is about what happens after...and most of it is incredibly dull. Perhaps realistic at times...but dull.

You would think with the plot and cast the film would have had a lot of exciting moments...well, this isn't so. Sadly....not so.

My Dad, William G. Wilson (not sure if you list him as Bob) filmed many of the shots in the Burglar. I remember seeing it with my folks. Dad also had the bit part as the TV director who says "You're On..." to newscaster John Facenda. Facenda, a Philadelphia legend, is best known as the voice of NFL Films which was born in Philadelphia. Strangely, Lou Kellman created TeleSports Digest which covered college and pro football (as well as other sports) before NFL Films. It's sad when when one searches for this film you get Whoopie's title. This film is fun to watch and my VHS is almost dead. Would appreciate hearing from anyone who knows where to get a legit copy. Thanks Bill Wilson

As others have noted, the script is not well written.

It's a good example of what can happen when a novelist adapts his own work for the screen. When it comes to editing, authors just hate having to kill their darlings, and so it was with Goodis leaving in those numerous dreadfully long monologues, which might be acceptable in a novel where the plot plays out in the reader's mind, but are inexcusable in a movie where the rule is 'show it, don't tell it'.

Unless dialog moves the plot forward it needs to be excised.

Goodis gave the director some real challenges, and what we end up with are characters not able to look at each other but instead stare without emotion while they babble on interminably about themselves, stopping the action dead.

Otherwise the plot, apart from some logic holes, is a good one, and typical of Goodis.

Casting is another problem for me. Mansfield's acting is simply atrocious.

Durea is a fine performer but having to act like and say that his age is 36, when in fact he is and looks almost 50, jars.

Peter Capell chews the scenery trying to depict Baylock.

Stewart Bradley (Charlie) personifies evil. I enjoyed his performance. I think Goodis writes best when he's writing for the villain of the piece.

Really liked the idea for 'The Burglar', despite the title sounding pretty generic in my view, and do love films that have the tense and suspenseful approach that this film sounded like it would do on paper. Paul Wendkos was a cult favourite and went on to have a good career in television later. My main reason for seeing 'The Burglar' was the cast. Have always liked Dan Duryea particularly, who was often cast in villain roles and was extremely good at that type of role.

'The Burglar' had a good deal of things going for it and has a lot of great things. For all of that promise and good things, it is also heavily flawed and doesn't really gel. Loved the style, direction and Duryea's performance. Sadly the pace in the middle act, the script and the lacking acting of early-career Jayne Mansfield (beautiful if fairly limited actress, who suffered a horrific death in a car accident just ten years later) really bring the side down very badly.

Beginning with what is good here, which is a lot actually, 'The Burglar' is beautifully and inventively shot, with plenty of style and grit. Enhancing the atmospheric and never cheaply used locations. The bold music score adds a lot too, the brassiness not being intrusive. Wendkos directs with panache, while the film starts promisingly with a lot of suspense and visual invention. And ends on a tense and gritty note.

Furthermore, there are a few good lines. One of the best being Dellas' "she tried to sit on my lap when I was standing up". Enough of the performances are good. Duryea shows that he was as good at playing tormented characters, the type he plays here, as he was with playing villains. Martha Vickers and Stewart Bradley are terrific support.

On the other point of view, there are a fair few big shortcomings and do feel bad saying this. The middle act is really dull, from a sluggish pace and next to no tension. The flow in the story and script also is very stop start. The script is a major flaw, it's too wordy, has too much extraneous fat, is very heavy-handed and can be too over-explanatory.

Mansfield is the cast's weak link. She has the beauty for the role but her limitations as an actress badly shows, bringing practically nothing to it other than good looks and not really seeming properly engaged.

In summation, above average with many good things but could have been a lot better. 6/10

Henry Hathaway's movie The Black Rose concerns a Saxon squire who travels to China and back again during the Middle Ages encountering marvels, romance and adventures along the way. It's a pretty and fun Technicolor movie containing a soupçon of rapture. On an intellectual level it can be fairly piffling until close to the end when the Norman King of England refuses to persecute the rebel Walter any longer, recognising that his animosity towards Normans is far from treason, but just a political manifestation of something very personal, conflict with his father. It was an eye opener to me at the time, how much Freudian issues play a subliminal part in our politics. This sort of mature perspective is to be found in The Burglar. It represents an opening up, an efflorescence of noir, typical of the late era (Mickey One, Blast of Silence). In noir authority is often an oppressive force, but in The Burglar, there's the suggestion that it's not the authorities and the system that pre-figure our doom, but our upbringing. It's up to you though, there's leeway for you to see it either way. Who's the enemy is it dad or Big Brother?

In one scene, seemingly totally unconnected from the rest of the film, Nat (The Burglar - Dan Duryea) mooches around the precincts of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and is seen sitting directly below the statue of John Barry, the first head of the United States Navy, in Independence Square, three miles away, just moments before. In sight is Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed. The locations are deserted and he's watched over by some sort of passant sculptural beastie and towered over by fluted columns. Are these relics of the past or an overarching system and structure in which he's alternately powerless and hounded or irrelevant? Does the beastie see him, or is it just a charming piece of stone and is the indelible stain of Dad the issue he can't rub off? I saw a film Paul Wendkos made decades later, Hell Boats, and there was a general ambivalence there as well, which I find very stimulating and mature. There are no easy answers to The Burglar. Although I've mentioned Freud, The Burglar isn't one of those annoying movies that are dogmatically Freudian snoozers; the conversations surrounding the past all come off as extremely natural in effect.

A little tardily, onto the plot! A bunch of small time burglars figure they can up the ante and go for some sparklers. It doesn't take a genius to work out that fate's cosh is waiting for each of them in the shadows one way or the other. Dan Duryea's lead is the standout, but you gotta feel sorry for Peter Capell's hyperactive pop-eyed lookout Baylock. Scared of his own shadow he dreams of owning a plantation in Central America, he hysterically calls it buying "ground", as if what he stands on the rest of the time is something that might open up and swallow him at any time. It's just so clever how this movie grinds out a noir atmosphere with slight tricks of vocabulary.

Even loving this movie with all my heart, I must admit that a relevant criticism for many genre fans wondering if they should watch The Burglar or not is that it lacks thrill in the middle section of the film, principally because Nat has a death wish and isn't putting up much of a fight. Things pick up for the finale on the famous Atlantic City Steel Pier, which comes off as a merging the skews of Lady From Shanghai and Mickey One.

Wendkos' film should have lead to a glittering career, but more meretricious aesthetics triumphed.

A crew of burglar set out to rob wealthy clueless socialite Sister Sarah. The leader Nat Harbin (Dan Duryea) use his ward Gladden (Jayne Mansfield) to case the mansion. Nat, Baylock (Peter Capell), and Dohmer (Mickey Shaughnessy) are able to grab the expensive neckless but it's too hot to sell it. It's not a perfect heist and the police are on their trail. Nat orders the crew to stay in the hideout but Baylock is desperate to make a run for it.

Mansfield's acting is a little too broad but she is every bit the blonde bombshell. It's a noir which uses all the exteriors and hard-boiled style that it can grab a hold on. It's not trying to be a subtle crime drama. There is a kind of fun in the movie's deliberate stylized way. I would have wanted the four of them to stay in the hideout. It's more compelling for them to bounce off each other and raise the tension in their conflicts. They could be interrupted by the police and other people in that house. Once she leaves the group, the movie loses a bit of its intensity among the various flashbacks. It's not like the police side is that compelling. This is good but not that great.