Ich war eine Ladendiebin

Director Charles Lamont puts together yet another effective docunoir on police addressing the growing organized shoplifting problem in California, and he does with style and lively pace.

Scott Brady looks very fit, Mona Freeman very beautiful, stunning Andrea King the intelligent female criminal, Tony Curtis a baby-faced thoroughly evil robber/potential rapist/murderer, Charles Drake, Rock Hudson in small parts. Curiously enough, Curtis, Drake and Hudson would also all appear in supporting roles in another 1950 movie, the great Western WINCHESTER '73, starring Jimmy Stewart.

Good photography, state of the art 1950 police plane, vehicles, listening devices and operational gadgets, in effective docunoir.

Universal released this weak crime movie, very low on entertainment content. It's portrayed as one of those "true stories", as phony as any random Hollywood product.

Mona Freeman stars as the winsome kleptomaniac, whose dad is a judge. She gets caught shoplifting and then gets blackmailed by sleazy criminals led by Andrea King, okay as a femme fatale.

Nearly all the roles are stereotypes, including Scott Brady in the lead role posing as a professional shoplifter. From the Universal stable of young talent, Tony Curtis is prominently featured as Pepe, a one-dimensional lady's man and creep. The Rock Hudson bit part is just that, a nothing assignment.

Directed by untalented comedy director Charles Lamont, whose career dated back to Silent Era short films and ended up with the "Mickey Mouse Club".

Although film noir was very popular in the 1950s in Hollywood, I wouldn't exactly consider "I Was a Shoplifter" to be an example of the genre. It's more a police procedural film...and a darned good one. It's also well worth seeing in order to see two future stars in smaller parts before they became famous, Tony Curtis and Rock Hudson. Of the two, Curtis' role was far larger and meatier...though VERY different from his later roles. He plays Pepe, a guy who is a pusillanimous jerk who loves to stab folks!

The film begins with two shoplifters being picked up by a department store. One (Mona Freeman) is the daughter of a judge...and she seems like a kleptomaniac who has no idea why she's doing it. The other seems like a real hard case...a career criminal who has been stealing for years (Scott Brady). But in reality, he's a detective working a case where they are trying to round up a ring of professional shoplifters as well as determine how and to whom they are selling their haul. Of course, there are lots of possible problems, a few fistfights and a dandy and tense finale.

The film is very well written, never dull and well acted. I noticed some reviewers really disliked this film...but I thought it was excellent from start to finish.

The 25 year old Tony Curtis went on to act alongside Rock Hudson and James Stewart in films like 'Winchester 73' and 'I Was A Shoplifter' in 1950. Although this film was dull, Curtis was part of a stock of actors whose close friends included Hudson and Stewart.

At the end of I WAS A SHOPLIFTER, manipulative brunette crime-syndicate moll Andrea King tells undercover cop Scott Brady that it's too bad he is what he is, right as he's arresting her.. .

Because no matter how great poor little cute-rich-blonde Mona Freeman is with the handsome Brady, helping her out of a crime-ring after being caught thrill-lifting on her own.. he's exceptionally cool and smooth with Andrea, and they would have truly made a fantastic villainous team...

Instead she's saddled with more of a rogue wild card in non-famous whipper-snapper Tony Curtis, flashing a threatening blade at the gorgeous Mona Freeman to remain with this mobile den of thieves... all keeping their operation moving forward without realizing how close the law's moving in...

Overall part film noir, part throwback-gangster and part mainstream action-thriller, director Charles Lamont's I WAS A SHOPLIFTER is a nifty character-driven ride despite the campy, novelty-style title.