It Takes A Thief (1960/Koch)

 

Picture: D     Sound: C-     Extras: D     Film: B-

 

 

Jayne Mansfield turns out to be the head of a group of crack thieves pulling off heist after heist in It Takes A Thief, the 1960 B-movie from British journeyman writer/director John Gilling.  The group is happy and on the same page, but Jim (Anthony Quale) is arrested and seems to have some of the heist money hidden.  Though he is Billy’s lover (Mansfield’s character male name), the others want their share, or Jim will be sorry.

 

The film only runs 70 minutes, but it originally ran 90 minutes.  Mansfield is very good, equal to the cast of mostly unknowns.  Gilling keeps the film tight, with the twist that Jim’s son and him need to reconnect and all his son can think of is trains.  The pacing is not bad and it is the kind of gritty picture Marilyn Monroe never really did.  Those who think Mansfield was just riding on Monroe’s coattails need to see more of her work like this.

 

The only problem with this DVD is that this offers an awful transfer of the original black and white film, which looks like a very dated, analog transfer for old TV broadcasts.  This does not do justice to what looks like some very good camerawork by cinematographer Gordon Dines.  The sound barely fares better, here in scratchy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono.  There are no extras either.  The film was originally released as The Challenge and we can only hope to see as print of the complete version down the line.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo