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Above average, minor crime film, well-directed by George Sherman. The Noir credentials of LARCENY can be disputed, but we can see John Payne's character as trapped by circumstances of his own choosing. As successful con-man, with a special talent for romancing rich women, he meets his match when something like real love comes along.

Payne is good at playing the conflicted states of the character. We've also got Dan Duryea, at his best, playing a bad guy, Shelley Winters, a razor-tongued harridan, and Percy Helton in a rare, somewhat substantial role as hotel manager. Dan O'Herlihy seems an odd choice. His British accent and gentle manner seem at odds with the confidence racket (but maybe that's the point). The dialog is quite good all the way through, with some quotable lines.

"Stop twisting my arm! People will think we're married!"

"Tory's like a high tension wire - once you grab on, you can't let go... even if you want to... and I don't want to. I like Tory. I like her a lot."

Not essential, or even very memorable, but you could do worse than to see LARCENY, now nicely transferred on blu-ray.

I wasn't too surprised I enjoyed "Larceny". After all, I love noir and I love Dan Duryea, as he played the slimiest and most menacing villains in these films...and "Larceny" features both.

Rick Mason (John Payne) works with a gang of cons run by Silky (Duryea). The gang has two serious problems despite their successes. First, Silky's girl, Tory (Shelley Winters) is poison...and rather emotionally imbalanced. Secondly, Silky isn't exactly a rousing endorsement for sound mental health! Again and again, Tory chases after Rick and Rick rebuffs her...and time and time again, Silky assumes the worst.

The gang's next caper involves a grieving war widow (Joan Caulfield). Rick pretends that he was good friends with the widow's husband during the war and he quickly ingratiates himself with her. The plan is to sell her on creating a giant memorial to her dead husband...and then pocket the money and run. The problem is that over time, Rick finds he's actually falling for her...which is complicated when the highly unstable Tory shows up...and Silky soon follows.

This film doesn't have the great camerawork and dark shadows you'd want in the best noir, but it does have plenty of slimy characters and intrigue. A very engaging and well written film and ample proof that later in his career, Payne excelled at some non-pretty boy roles.

When I went to see this lesser known noir, the person introducing it described it as "almost a parody" of this kind of film and said not to take it too seriously. Nevertheless, it is a film about con artists and their techniques, and I love those. Especially well showcased is the technique of letting a mark think something is his or her own idea, and people are always more determined to do things that they think are their own ideas. The story features a group of globetrotting, high-rolling grifters led by John Payne and noir regular Dan Duryea, who decide to target a wealthy but naive young war widow(Joan Caulfield) with a scheme to build a youth center memorializing her husband. This necessitates Payne pretending to be a buddy of her late husband, who in reality, he had never met. At first the plan is to raise money from wealthy friends, but she then decides to bankroll the whole project herself. Things are further complicated when a sometime girlfriend of both of the men, played by a tough-as-nails young Shelly Winters, refuses to stay under wraps. This film seems to have been largely forgotten, which is a shame.

There is nothing more frustrating for a critic to review than a good film that goes slightly awry at the end. I will not give you any spoilers, but suffice it to say that Payne and Winters do a pretty good job, along with Duryea in convincing us that the world is divided among the rotten and the honorable. And then there are those who are stuck somewhere in between. The ending did not ring true to me, but others may have found it more convincing. See this one for yourself and decide if you think it was handled correctly.

Payne, who normally played goody-goody roles in most of his other films, is, at times, convincing as a confidence man, but at other times falls back into his Mr. Nice Guy persona. Maybe that was the intent of the writers, but I was not buying it.

Based on Lois Eby and John Leming novel The velvet fleece and excellently adapted to the screen, the movie benefits from a well written script by Herb Margolis, Lou Morheim and William Bowers and from excellen performances by the whole cast. Not only John Payne and Dan Duryea provide their characters with solid credible acting. Also Shelley Winters does a good acting job as the femme fatale obsessed with Payne. She was an actress who had deserved more subtle roles that the ones she usually played. After shining in musicals, light comedies and adventure movies, Payne did several interesting film noirs with Phil Karlson: 99 river st. And excellent Kansas city confidential. Always credible, he conferred a solid presence to his works. This movie is not an exception mainly thanks to great dialogue lines. Screenwriter Bowers also did the script of several other good noirs like The web, Criss Cross, and Cry danger. Payne, Duryea and two more partners are confident men who work scamming rich people. When their last job fails they decide to go for a young wealthy war widow. But problems begin when, while payne is trying to seduce her, Duryea's girl Shelley Winters tries to seduce Payne - who is falling in love with the widow - causing complications and leading the job to fail. Deserves a watch.