The Burglar

This film noir first feature lays on the style from the start: a fake newsreel spotlights the wealthy spiritualist's diamond necklace targeted by Duryea and cohorts, before a striking break-in sequence matches shock cuts with a pulsatingly brassy score. Our attention duly grabbed, Goodis' adaptation of his own novel probes the psychological hinterland as the gang waits it out. Duryea is cagey, weighed down by responsibility for Mansfield as the daughter of the safecracker who took him in as a runaway. Meanwhile sweaty Capell is itching to fence the goods. Conflict breeds claustrophobia breeds... well, you know the rest. Wendkos doesn't break the mould, but he decorates it with no uncertain panache, as spiralling misfortune leads to a somewhat Wellesian finale in an Atlantic City boardwalk funhouse.