Since this was re-posted in 2020, LARCENY has been released on DVD by Kino and has become a staple of Eddie's "1948/75th" screenings in various cities/venues in 2023. Gord did us the honor of presenting it during one of our last phases of the NOTW format here at the board...

NOTW--LARCENY 1948 John Payne, Dan Duryea, Shelly Winters

Posted by Gordon Gates on 5/1/2016, 7:21 am
LARCENY 1948



This one is a rather unseen film-noir gem put out by Universal International Studios in 1948. The cast is made up of Dan Duryea, John Payne, Shelley Winters, Joan Caulfield, Dan O'Herlihy, Richard Rober, Dorothy Hart and Percy Helton.

Dan Duryea, John Payne Richard Rober and Dan O'Herlihy are con men who have just pulled a 250,000 dollar score in Miami Florida. In the mix here is young and hot looking Shelley Winters. She is the main squeeze of gang leader, Dan Duryea--or so he thinks. Miss Winters, however, has the hots for John Payne. Payne refers to Winters as "a boa constrictor in high heels" and tries to steer clear of her.



Now the gang is moving cross country to pull another job in California. They are going to hit a small burg called Mission City. There is a nice sized population of well heeled types residing there.

Payne, the pretty boy front for the gang, hits town first to do the scouting. The mark is a wealthy war widow, Joan Caulfield. Payne is posing as a soldier from the same unit as Caulfield's dead husband. Payne is to say all the proper things and hook the widow into building a war memorial. Of course the whole thing will be a con job. Duryea and the others will stay out of the way till needed. Duryea will play the memorial builder, etc.

Gumming up the works here is Miss Winters. She was sent on a trip to Cuba by Duryea. She however decides that she prefers the company of Payne more and follows the group to California. Duryea, needless to say is not the type to take losing a dame lightly. He already suspected that Winters and Payne were up to a bit of horizontal Cha-Cha.



Payne sets the hook and soon has Caulfield firmly on the line. Things are going rather well except for Winters showing up at all the wrong times. Payne knows full well that Winters' infatuation with him could get both of the them deep-sixed by Duryea. Also uddying the waters here is the fact that Payne has taken a shine to Miss Caulfield. He is not sure whether he wants to continue with the con.

The chance of a $100,000 plus payday is just too juicy to resist, however. His end will be enough to break with Duryea and the gang, not to mention get away from increasingly nutty Winters. The deal is nearly complete when Winters again fouls matters up. Caulfield now tumbles to the fix but realizes that she has fallen for the Payne. Of course there is a spot of violence needed to settle the matter...

This is a pretty nifty upper B-film which was Payne's first foray into film noir. Payne would later shine in THE CROOKED WAY, 99 RIVER STREET, HIDDEN FEAR, KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL, SLIGHTLY SCARLET and THE BOSS. Dan Duryea and Shelley Winters also had a long list of noir on their resumés.

The director here was veteran helmsman George Sherman. Sherman could always be relied on to deliver a solid product. The man worked in several genres with, RELENTLESS, BLACK BART, SWORD IN THE DESERT, THE SLEEPING CITY, TOMAHAWK, WAR ARROW, BORDER RIVER, LAST OF THE FAST GUNS and BIG JAKE being solid examples of his output.

The screenplay features plenty of great lines and was supplied by William Bowers (based on a novel by Lois Eby). The two time Oscar-nominated Bowers worked on several top-notch films noir, including THE WEB, THE MOB, PITFALL, ABANDONED, CRISS CROSS, CONVICTED, SPLIT SECOND and CRY DANGER.

I'm always surprised at just how drop dead gorgeous Shelly Winters was as a young woman.