The Thief (1952 film)
| The Thief | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Russell Rouse |
| Produced by | Clarence Greene |
| Screenplay by | Clarence Greene Russell Rouse |
| Starring | Ray Milland |
| Music by | Herschel Burke Gilbert |
| Cinematography | Sam Leavitt |
| Edited by | Chester W. Schaeffer |
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Production
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Harry Popkin Productions
Fran Productions |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
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Release date
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Running time
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86 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1 million |
The Thief is a 1952 American film noir crime film directed by Russell Rouse and starring Ray Milland. It's the third in a series of six classic film noir productions scripted by Rouse and his writing partner Clarence Greene. The film is unusual because there is no principal actor dialogue spoken.
The principal characters are not "fleshed-out", as they might be in a more conventional film, as this film is more about "trade-craft", not as much about the principal characters and their respective personalities. Not withstanding that observation, the film certainly depends upon the exceptionally strong dramatic performance by Ray Milland, and the equally strong music performance by composer/conductor Herschel Burke Gilbert. The film is nearly fully orchestrated by Gilbert.
Ray Milland plays Dr. Allan Fields, a nuclear physicist who works for the Atomic Energy Commission in Washington, D.C.. But Fields is also a spy working for an unnamed foreign power.
Through an elaborate series of plans and devices ("tradecraft"), Fields, as ordered by his "case officer", takes sets of photos of top-secret documents, using a Minox camera, and passes these through a vast network of foreign-power "couriers" to New York City, and thereafter overseas to an enemy country (implied by the final courier's plane's destination of "Cairo", certainly a thinly-veiled reference to "the East", without actually naming the Soviet Union). The latest canister of microfilm which Fields sends out is intercepted by authorities after a courier is killed in a freak traffic accident in Manhattan, with the undeveloped microfilm canister in his hand. The FBI develops the microfilm, analyzes its contents and constructs a list of probable suspects within the AEC, one of whom is the "custodian" of the subject document, and who is initially interrogated.
The custodian having apparently been cleared of espionage charges, the custodian's subordinates, including Fields and his immediate AEC colleagues, have all come under suspicion by the FBI, and agents are assigned to "tail" each one, but it quickly becomes apparent that Fields is the "prime suspect". Fields' case officer becomes aware of this and sends him a "flash message", in a Western Union telegram, to destroy all his "spy-craft" apparatus and to leave immediately for a "safe house" in New York City.
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Wikipedia