The bit actors with two lines speak like zombies. The score is intermittent and overwrought. The plot is set in motion by a voice-over, and then stupidly recapitulated by actors. Yet this movie is a tough film noir about how ex-shoplifter June Havoc gets dragged down by cheap, chiseling, womanizer Cesar Romero, and it works because he is such a dull, cheap thug, living off little people who hope for something decent and nice. He sucks them dry and throws them away and walks off, thinking he's smart because he only plays the sure thing.Producer-Director W. Lee Wilder (brother of Billy Wilder) clearly did everything in this production to make it as cheaply as possible, but the three leading actors (Havoc, Romero and Marie McDonald) and the script are good enough to overcome him. Fans of old movies will be pleased to see perpetual dumb cop Fred Kelsey as a desk sergeant.

Cesar Romero and June Havoc star in this shoestring B film about a woman who falls for the wrong guy and both pay for it in the end.June Havoc plays a waitress in a Los Angeles beanery who's been around the block a few times and sets in motion a train of events when she feels sorry for Marie McDonald when she can't pay her bill and gets her a job at her place of work.McDonald barely escaped from a heist she was in on up north and she's wanted. Romero is a flashy small time crook who runs a bookmaking parlor with Lon Chaney, Jr. in back of Chaney's tailor shop. All three, Romero, Havoc, and Chaney are in parts that they would have gotten more critical acclaim for had they been at a major studio for this film. Romero who was usually second leads and/or romantic rival of the leading man really shows some acting chops in this part. Chaney also showed he was capable of more than the horror films Universal Pictures put him in.As for Havoc she spent most of her career on the stage, but her film appearances were in mostly B films. She's the hardboiled dame in love with the wrong guy and great at the part.Fans of all three of these people, this dental floss budget film should not be missed by any of you.

A shoplifter (June Havoc ) tries to go straight but falls for the wrong man (Cesar Romero).This a low budget but watchable crime film, directed by Billy Wilder's brother W. Lee Wilder. He seems to be trying to imitate his brother's films like "Double Indemnity" and it is all told in flashback. Havoc is very good in the lead and Romero oozes sleaze as the womanizing bookie. The real reason I wanted to see this was because I am big Lon Chaney Jr fan and was trying to see as many of his films as I could. It was a little disappointing since he is just playing another Lennie type role from "Of Mice And Men" but he does get a bit more screen time then he usually got in 1950s films. He adds a clever bit to his character where he constantly holds his eyeglasses by the ear piece in his mouth. This is worth seeing if you like gritty B movies of this era, plus there is some nice on location shooting in seedy Los Angeles.

1950's "Once a Thief..." is enhanced by its low budget status, populated by small time chiselers and hoods, and the women who fall for them. Top billing goes to Cesar Romero as Mitch Moore, the same kind of cad role he'd been playing since his film debut in 1934's "The Thin Man." June Havoc, younger sister of Gypsy Rose Lee, is the latest moll to fall for his charms, after doing time for petty theft (she soon gave up an unspectacular movie career for the stage and television). Lon Chaney is a pleasant surprise as Gus, who runs a gambling den behind a dry cleaners, who may be a crook but has the heart that others lack. Still echoing his lovable Lennie from "Of Mice and Men," and yet another example of how his career continuously received a boost from his typecasting. The girls who aren't jailed wind up dead; alas, Marie 'The Body' McDonald, in one of her last roles, committed suicide at 42 in 1965, her tabloid coverage far greater than any of her movies. It's an honestly gritty title from director W. Lee Wilder, older brother of Billy Wilder, whose films are mostly guilty...of boring the audience.