Haute Pègre

"Larceny" from 1948 is a kind of an all over the place noir. It starts with a group of con men led by Silky (Dan Duryea) lousing up a scam and being forced to think of something else. He and his cronies come up with the idea of sending Rick (John Payne) to seduce a wealthy war widow (Joan Caulfield) into building a huge war memorial in her husband's memory. He has to lie and say her husband was his best pal in the service.

Meanwhile, Silky's girlfriend Tory (Winters) seems anxious to be with Payne and gets in the way at every turn. Silky isn't happy about this, which could be dangerous.

Payne meanwhile falls for Caulfield and vice versa. It turns into a real mess.

It was okay. Every woman in the film - Caulfield, Winters, Patricia Alphin, who plays a waitress, and Dorothy Hart all act as if they've never seen a man before when they meet Payne. He was handsome, but the characters seemed more like aggressive women from a later era.

The exception would be Caulfield, whose character was more subtle. Dorothy Hart didn't have much of a career, but she was absolutely stunning.

While 'Larceny' has a cast of nasty, amoral characters, those expecting a traditional noir with the interesting camera work and lighting might be disappointed. However, it does have a fair bit of suspense, a few twists and turns and some fine acting, so I'd rate it slightly above average.

The plot revolves around a group of fraudsters who come up with elaborate fundraising schemes to bilk hundreds of thousands from wealthy investors then skip town; frighteningly relevant to today's mainstream business world. And they're very successful until one guy meets a dame and falls in love.

Unfortunately, the love story isn't very convincing, nor is the main character's transformation from amoral scumbag to upstanding citizen, which really makes everything else seem a bit implausible.

Regardless, there are some suspenseful moments, you do feel for John Payne's predicament, and the acting is generally quite good from Payne, Dan Duryea, character actor Percy Helton and especially Shelly Winters as the superbly annoying scorned femme fatale. She's good at being bad.

Anyway, if you're a completist like me, it's worth a go.

Like Dick Powell, John Payne was another crooner and hoofer from ‘30s musicals – a light leading man – who saw new opportunities waiting in the changing Hollywood of the late ‘40s and seized them. Eschewing also-ran roles in prestige pictures (The Razor's Edge, Miracle on 34th Street), he found he was better off taking top billing in the grittier Bs of the newborn noir cycle. It was a smart move. With rugged good looks but no glamour boy, a strong, silent type who didn't make it a gimmick, he turned into a plausible and appealing Average Joe, without ever fading into the generic. In the half-dozen or so noirs he starred in, he straddled both sides of the law, though he usually found himself stranded in a no-man's land in the middle.

In Larceny, he's one of a gang of con-men led by Dan Duryea. They've just finished a grift in Miami Beach, so Payne is sent to the far coast, to `Mission City,' to lay groundwork for the next job. He poses as an old service buddy of a slain war hero so the widow (Joan Caulfield) will spearhead a fund-raising drive for a memorial – sort of a posh Boy's Town for underprivileged youth – that, of course, is nothing more than a scheme for bilking donors.

But that mischievous cherub Cupid throws a few monkey wrenches into the works. First off, Payne starts developing protective feelings for Caulfield and, more slowly, she for him (she's been playing Vestal Virgin at her husband's altar for so long she finds her own feelings a betrayal). Even worse, Duryea's moll, a `boa constrictor in high heels' (Shelley Winters, in full blonde-bombshell mode) carries such a torch for Payne that she follows him out west, by bus yet. The sicker Payne grows of her, the needier and more reckless she gets – their unstable chemistry threatens to blow them both sky high. The plot executes several quick turns when the possessive Duryea shows up (as does the victim of the Miami scam), when Caulfield reveals that she plans to put up all the money herself, and when Winters decides to take matters into her own pistol-packin' hand....

The violence in Larceny is toned way down, confined mainly to Winters' being slapped around (but she slaps back). It relies instead on a tight script, bristling with smart-mouthed cracks: `[Winters] is like a high-tension wire. Once you grab on, you can't let go – even if you want to;' `You kiss like you're paying off an election bet;' `I said I'm sorry but I'm not going to write it on the blackboard 100 times.' It allows Percy Helton and Dorothy Hart space enough to flesh out their small parts (Hart does a scrumptious riff on Dorothy Malone's bookstore clerk in The Big Sleep). All in all, Larceny proves a congenial vehicle for Payne's welcome arrival in dark city.

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.

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.