Director Paul Wenkos' first film "The Burglar" (1957) was based on the David Goodis novel of the same name, and Goodis penned the screenplay, too. This grim, gritty, black & white suspense thriller starts out strongly but then degenerates into a lackluster crime-doesn't-pay yarn. A gang of thieves break into a wealthy spiritualist's mansion in Philadelphia late one evening and steals a priceless necklace. The thief who enters the second floor of the mansion to crack a wall safe and make away with the goods is Nate Harbin (Dan Duryea of "Black Bart"), the kind of sort of leader of a gang of two other hoodlums—Baylock (Peter Capell of "Son of Hitler") and Dohmer (Mickey Shaughnessy of "From Here to Eternity")—and a young woman Gladden (Jayne Mansfield of "Female Jungle") who he has known all his life. Ironically, Nate and Gladden were orphans both raised by a compassionate thief, Gerald (one-time-only actor Sam Elber) who has made Nate swear that he will always look after Gladden. Nate sends Gladden in to case the place, and Sister Sara (Phoebe Mackay of "Splendor in the Grass") gives her the grand tour. The night that the guys went to Sister Sara's mansion, they parked their jalopy along the highway. Two uniformed officers in a prowl car stop to check out the abandoned vehicle. Fearless Nate pauses in the middle of cracking the safe, leaves the premises, and walks back to the two cops standing by his ride. Nate complains audaciously about the shortage of mechanics up at that time in the evening. The two cops believe Nate's story about his car stalling out, so they let him sleep in the back seat until dawn. Stealthily, Nate returns to the mansion, opens the safe, and snatches the diamonds. Unfortunately, after he rifled the wall safe, Nate forgets to close it. Later, not long after Nate and his accomplices have left, Sister Sara discovers that she has been burglarized because Nate left the safe door ajar.Worse, unknown to Nate, one of the two policemen who questioned him about his car parked along the side of the highway is the corrupt cop who takes the necklace off his hands. At one point, Nate and his accomplices pull up stakes and head to Atlantic City. Charlie(Stewart Bradley) is hot on their trail, and he has been dating Gladden secretly before the guys arrive. Things get really tense after Nate learns about Charlie and Gladden.Wendkos confines this thriller to a mere 90 minutes, but the momentum breaks down after the initial robbery and the period when the thieves lay low to avoid arrest. Wendkos's "The Burglar" inspired director Henri Verneuil's French remake with Omar Sharif and Jean-Paul Belmondo entitled "The Burglars." "The Burglar" suffers from a bummer of an ending, while it's remake is a lot more fun.

As others have observed, Paul Wendkos' "The Burglar" owes something to "The Asphalt Jungle" (the armature of the plot), "The Lady From Shanghai" (the Fun House sequence), and Alfred Hitchcock (the use of landmark locations in Philadelphia and Atlantic City).It has many extraordinarily arty shots and edits, from between somebody's legs, sometimes a POV of someone getting punched in the face, close ups galore, strange camera angles, stark lighting, and all the rest of it.And none of it hangs together. Three hoodlums and a dame burgle the mansion of a phony swami in Philadelphia and steal an emerald necklace. Before pulling off the heist they sit around in this shabby flat, sweating and arguing. After they have the fortune in their hands, they sit around the same flat, sweating and arguing. There's not a smile in a cartload, and little enthusiasm. Peter Capell, as Baylock, is the jewelry expert. He's been hijacked by his adrenal medullas. He sweats a bath tub. And he overacts to the point at which, had he gestured, shouted, and rolled his eyes more often, I'd have joined him in his irretrievable insanity.The young Jayne Mansfield is attractive enough in a flashy way and is as generously proportioned as ever. Wendkos has shot her silhouette in profile once or twice and she's unmistakable. Her bosom precedes her by a quarter of a mile. But she can't act, and when she's being pursued by a murderer in a shadowy House of Horrors she minces hurriedly and her high heels clack a tattoo along the floor that sounds like some kind of monstrous Japanese getas gone berserk.I appreciate the effort that went into the production, and some of the location shooting was agreeable, but overall it was dull and depressing.

***SPOILER*** Comes across the screen much like the Orson Wells' 1948 Film Nior classic "The Lady from Shanghai" the film "The Burgler" has to do with a jewel or diamond necklace robbery that goes wrong in the robbers not being able to fence the stolen and expensive merchandise. Having to lay low until he heat's off head burglar Nat Harbin, Dan Duryea, has to placate his two associates Baylock & Dohmer, Peter Capell & Mickey Shaughnessy, in not going off the handle and mess up the entire operation. There's also Nat's half-sister Gladden, Jayne Mansfield, who want's to get out of this criminal racket and spend her time on the beach at Atlantic City and get a nice tan as well as fill her very ample lungs with the fresh and healthy salt water air that's there.What the gang of burglars don't realize is that they've been tagged or figured out by Charlie the Cop, Stewart Bardley, who was on the scene of crime and is now intent to get the piece of hot ice or jewelry off their hands. Tracking the quartet from their home base in Philadelphia to the seaside town of Atlantic City Charlie and his girlfriend Della, Martha Vickes, plan to rob them of the necklace before they can get it, by having the necklace fenced, off their hands. Charlie feels in that him being a member of law enforcement he can murder the entire bunch and still get away with it by claiming self-defense on his part.***SPOILERS*** With Nat hiding the necklace in Gladden's hotel room in the Oceanview Hotel in Atlantic City Charlie who's been romancing her in order to find it now has no choice but to keep Nat as well as Gladden alive in order for them to lead him to it. Wih Dohmer gunned down by state dropper's and Baylock murdered by Charlie it's now down to three, Charlie Gadden & Nat, who know where the necklace is and with the exception of Gladden, who's far more interested in getting a suntan, are determined at all cost to find it. Downbeat ending with Nat risking and losing his life in having his step-sister Gladden get out of harms or Charlie's way. Charlie himself who thought he's gotten away with murder, the murder of both Baylock and Nat, ends up cuffed and with his jaw broken when his girlfriend Della, who he's been cheating on, ratted him out in him having the stolen necklace on him just when it looked like he was home free.

This is a suspenseful and actually a pretty popular movie with Dan Duryea, femme fa-tale Martha Vickers, and a young, baby faced little starlet named Jayne Mansfield (a month before her Broadway triumph). Pure 1950s film noir here. The only copies available are poor VHS copies that sell for $25.00 or $30.00 on Ebay. It's ashame because it is a good film with all around impressive performances. Definitely needs an official DVD release. Filmed in 1955 but released in 1957 to cash in on Jayne's fame. Filmed in Philadelphia about 1 hour from where Jayne lived until she was 6, and is buried at, Pen Argyl. The plot line: Petty thief Duryea and his gang of 'thugs' go on a big heist at a local wealthy woman's mansion. In comes little 'sister' to Duryea Jayne, to help size the place up and get a feel for where the jewels are. Chaos ensues and Duryea ends up sending Jayne to Atlantic City (after the heist has been pulled off) only to find out she is having an affair with (MAJOR SPOILER) the policeman investigating the robbery! Good plot line and a great nostalgic look at Baby Jayne before she went Hollywood.