The Cat Burglar

I just finished watching this film from 1961 as directed by William Witney on the Trio Channel. It's a quick paced film that according to the folks here at IMDB has a 65 minute run time. Trio put it in a 90 minute slot with a lot of commercials so that time seems about right. Anyway, I got a total kick out of the movie which featured a cool 60's "beatnik" type soundtrack and had a fella by the name of Jack Hogan in the lead. Fans of the 60's TV series COMBAT! will recognize Jack as the BAR toting William G. Kirby. A fun flick that I wouldn't mind seeing on DVD down the road and a very big favorite of Quentin Tarantino's. He's a big William Witney fan and he always thought the film was lost but Trio found it and also aired the trailer for the film afterwards. Good stuff.

The Cat Burglar starts off nice and strong as we enter in the midst of the cat burglar in action. The sequence is well done and engaging, from the direction, acting, and soundtrack, it's all working. It continues on fairly solid ground but by midpoint it starts to get slightly complicated and a bit cumbersome. Still the soundtrack is working and we do get some new and kind of interesting characters along the way. Despite some ebbing the pace remains fairly brisk and everything does seem to manage to coalesce toward the film's finish line. Overall, The Cat Burglar still manages to be kind of fun and worth checking out.

Pretty good little programmer. Actor Hogan's sneak thief Jack Coley is no typical hero of the time— he steals, lies, and gets beaten up. But he is patriotic. Seems he steals from an unwitting courier (Kenney) hand-drawn diagrams for some important Soviet plans. Trouble is he doesn't know the significance of the notebook he steals, which came in a briefcase with his real target, a pile of jewels. So the diagrams end up lining a cat box! This sets off a chain reaction among the many players that goes from slum-dwellers in rags to guys in spiffy suits. The ending is shrewdly ambiguous given what's gone before.

I love the sleaze-ball parts, especially Ms Pray-tell, who's a landlady from heck. And that's along with Muskie (VeSota) looking like a toad that swallowed a beach-ball. Then there's the rat-trap rooms where Jimmy Hoffa may still be hiding. All totaled, these sets may have cost a buck-eighty. Anyway, Nan's (Kenney) a fetching innocent among the low-lifes, while Hogan at times resembles a darker Steve McQueen.

All in all, the 60-minutes manages some interesting touches, mainly from the pen of premier bad guy Leo Gordon working here as screenwriter. In some ways, not all (lighting), there's an over-leap here of 40's noir beyond the air- brushed 1950's to the '60's. Anyway, my advice is not to struggle with the many plot convolutions, but glam onto the characters, settings, and jazz score. The sum total may not be memorable, but it is worth it.

A solid 65 minute noir drama. Everyone played their part with total professional gusto. These guys and gals have all been round the block many times, and put in a good day's work for a (presumably) modest day's pay. I was playing "guess the lookalike" all the way through. "Could that have been Lee Remick? How about that guy, Steve McQueen or maybe Paul Newman? Clint Walker type? And maybe Rock Hudson?" We had a cast of stalwart Hollywood working stiffs, some of whom achieved "a little" success, most of whom achieved "little" success (what a difference the indefinite article makes). Hats off to the stalwarts who didn't become mega stars, but nevertheless kept us entertained at the movies for years. Nevertheless this tightly scripted and well directed tale is worth an hour of your time. You can see nougats of later films blossoming here. A zippy sound track, riffing on "Fever" with basement jazz club arrangement drives the action along. No spoilers; does our anti-hero turn out to be the good guy? Or does he revert to type? Who gets the girl? Does crime ultimately pay? Watch this little gem to find out.

No really the William Witney's style, trademark, he who was the best serial maker of all times. After the mid forties, he resumed his career with one hour films for Republic Pictures and some other Poverty Row companies. This little crime thriller is rather agreeable, never boring and production design very clean and sharp. But that's all, I prefered BONNIE PARKER STORY and STRANGER AT MY DOOR, from the same William Witney, but ten times more inspired. However, you have here Leo Gordon as screenwriter but unfortunately not as actor. I think it would have given more strength to this interesting little gem. Even Quentin Tarantino loved it.