The Burglar
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The Burglar
1957. USA. Directed by Paul Wendkos. Screenplay by David Goodis. With Dan Duryea, Jayne Mansfield, Martha Vickers, Mickey Shaughnessy. Pulp existentialist David Goodis brings his own crime novel to the screen in classic hardboiled fashion. A botched jewel heist sparks sexual tension, incestuous childhood guilt, and treachery among thieves and crooked cops—and who can blame them, with voluptuous Jayne Mansfield at the center of it all? Eagerly making his feature debut, Wendkos employs various Wellesian devices including a newsreel prologue, a climax in a fun house on Atlantic City’s Steel Pier, and a profusion of sweaty, deep focus close-ups. The Burglar represents a transitional, self-reflexive noir made at the twilight of the studio system in the late 1950s, with Goodis’ story also forming the basis for Henri Verneuil’s Le casse, a 1971 serie noire starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Omar Sharif, and Dyan Cannon. 90 min.