The Burglar

An improbable mini-masterpiece of scum and polite sleaze. What starts out as a gripping heist picture very soon detours into a soul-search lit chiaroscuro: dirty men and sad women gambling their life's worth on a botched job, stuck in a room together, idle hands twiddling their thumbs. The themes somehow also flirt with partner swapping and incest - God knows how it works, but the performances from Duryea, Vickers, and refreshingly Mansfield feel authentic: strong and tired all at once.

A raw, plain noir of the late 1950s where characters look aged and visual gloss is reduced. Anxiety defines the atmosphere, leaving room for sympathy towards Duryea's character. Didn't find the film that gripping, but it sets a mood that feels honest and natural for the story.

Was not surprised to learn that this was a debut film. It's crammed with visual ideas and you get the sense that Wendkos, as if fearing that he would never get to make another film, put everything he had into it. Fantastically enough, it actually works to highten the emotions. Duryea and Mansfield give very moving performances too.

A so-so noir. Musical score is over the top. Some of the acting is too.

Based on the title and the start you might imagine this will be a heist film, but the well executed heist scene is merely the setup for an examination of the way these characters cope with the stress of hiding out, as well as other group dynamic tensions that get slowly revealed. It doesn't have showy scenes, but it's gripping all the way in large part thanks to Duryea's superb performance. He goes all out creating a sympathetic, flawed, multifaceted burglar who you find yourself rooting for.

Terrific sense of style and confidence, loads of eccentric and artsy touches. Edits are often done with extreme economy, sometimes even alarming abruptness. Kaplan's music is used brilliantly. There's a flashback scene that borders on the avant-garde. The camerawork is very artful, and the film is packed with intriguing drama and plot turns. The rhythms are odd and unsettling. Duryea is perhaps at his very best here, Mansfield displays a vulnerability I wouldn't have thought her capable of.

belo filme

Loved the beginning, but as it went on, though it was stylish, it was a bit dramatically inert. I didn't care about any of the characters, the dialogue wasn't snappy, and by the end I was just waiting it out. Oh, and the score was so loud relative to the dialogue that sometimes I literally couldn't understand it.

Not impressed. The score is really intrusive and the plot just isn't as strong as the filmmakers think it is. Duryea is good, but that isn't nearly enough to make this anything more than barely watchable.