robinakaaly Review of The Thief

The Thief (1952)

Ray Milland having to act his socks off - and succeeding

[5/10 · 9 April 2011]

This was a fascinating film, very much of its time (ie the Rosenbergs and other atom spies), and cleverly done, being wordless. Ray Milland is an eminent nuclear scientist working in Washington, where his laboratory consists of a few retorts and a fractionating column more suited to distilling bootleg liquor. From time to time he gets requests for information, photographs documents with a Minox camera (what else), and passes to film to his contact, usually in the Library of Congress. We see the film being passed from contact to contact, before one boards a plane for Lisbon, Madrid, Paris and Cairo(!) Slowly the strain takes its toll, especially when a colleague is arrested for his spying activities. The contact is killed in a road accident with a roll of incriminating film and the FBI are soon on the case. Milland is sent up to New York where he is told to lie low while a false passport is provided. In his tenement apartment, the chequered wallpaper soon becomes the bars of a prison. He cannot even succumb to the obvious and proffered charms of his neighbour, the very attractive Rita Gam. A meeting is arranged at the top of the Empire State Building, but the FBI are on the case. Interestingly the roof of the Empire State looked exactly the same as when I was there a few years ago, down to the security fencing and the binoculars. The contact agent gets killed in one accident, and Milland only escapes by causing the death of the FBI agent. Dressed as a seaman he goes down to the docks and is about to board a ship to escape. However, he has contrasted the bright lights and gaiety of New York with the grim awfulness of a tramp steamer. He turns round at the foot of the gang plank and heads back to the city. This was of course before the Rosenbergs were electrocuted. The way the tension was built up and the stress put on Milland were very well portrayed. However, the ease with which he was able to steal secrets was rather alarming.