The Thief (1952)

October 10, 1952, release date

Directed by Russell Rouse

Screenplay by Clarence Greene, Russell Rouse

Music by Herschel Burke Gilbert

Edited by Chester W. Schaeffer

Cinematography by Sam Leavitt

Ray Milland as Allan Fields (nuclear physicist/U.S. spy for the Soviet Union)

Martin Gabel as Mr. Bleek (Soviet agent/case officer)

Harry Bronson as Harris (FBI agent)

Rita Vale as Miss Philips (Soviet agent/courier)

Rex O’Malley as Beal (Soviet agent/courier)

Rita Gam as the girl living in the New York City brownstone

John McKutcheon as Dr. Linstrum

Joe Conlin as Walters

Distributed by United Artists

Produced by Harry Popkin Productions, Fran Productions

The Thief is the story of post–World War II espionage and intrigue, and the entire film includes not one single line of dialogue. I was intrigued when I heard about this feature of the film and wondered if it could possibly work. I think it does. It helps that Ray Milland is so good at expressing what he is thinking and feeling. And it helps that the film methodically lays out the routines that all the spies in the network follow so that viewers can understand a great deal of the plot through visuals alone. This is another B film that requires viewers to pay attention to details, and this point is even more important for modern viewers. I imagine contemporary (1952) viewers were more accustomed to the methods used to show the progression of the narrative in the film.

The Thief is another film that I have written about this year that can be compared with current events. The Thief is all about spying and collusion with foreign agents. The other three films noir with contemporary themes are:

◊ The Glass Wall (immigration and refugees).

◊ The Killer That Stalked New York (disease epidemic).

◊ City of Fear (fear of nuclear radiation and radiation poisoning).

Click on the title to see my separate posts on each film.

The opening credits of The Thief appear over a shot of the Capitol dome at night. As the credits draw to a close, the shadow of a man walks toward the viewers and starts to blot out the dome. The film then cuts to a shot of a ringing telephone. The camera pans to a man, fully clothed, lying on a bed. He doesn’t answer the phone, and he visibly relaxes when it stops ringing. He gets up, puts on his hat and coat, and leaves his apartment. The man is Dr. Allan Fields, and he works at the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in Washington, D.C. His position makes him an appealing target for Soviet infiltration, and he is already embroiled in betrayal and intrigue when the film starts.

The score serves to accentuate the suspense, tension, and danger, even though much of Dr. Fields’s spy work is routine. But the score isn’t the only thing that accentuates the danger ahead. The lack of dialogue is very disconcerting. It adds to the sense of isolation, the loneliness of a man trading secrets with an enemy of the state, as the film progresses.

(This blog post about The Thief contains some spoilers.)

As the plot unfolds, viewers learn that the telephone serves as a signal: It rings three times, stops ringing, then rings three times again, which means that it is time for Dr. Fields to pick up a message from his Soviet contact. Empty cigarette packs dropped on the street are used to pass messages, a method made easier because almost everyone in 1950s films smoked! Dr. Fields’s assignments are to photograph secret documents with a pocket-size camera and leave the photos at a library drop-off site. If his contact isn’t there at the library, he doesn’t drop off his photos.

One of the spies in the network is hit and killed by a car in New York City. A police officer comes to his aid and finds a canister containing photos in the spy’s hand. (This plot point reminds me of The House on 92nd Street, which starts with a spy being killed in an automobile accident, which in turn causes the espionage plans and the spy network to unravel.) When the pattern of telephone rings happens one morning instead of in the evening, Dr. Fields knows that something unusual has happened. He doesn’t know what has changed, but viewers have already seen the death of the spy in New York City and law enforcement’s discovery of the photos of secret documents.

Now, the plans change: Dr. Fields, and presumably all the spies in the network, must leave the country. Fields finds a Western Union telegram shoved under his apartment door. In it, he finds instructions on how to leave Washington, D.C., and go to New York City, where he will wait for further instructions. FBI agents are already on the case, and what happens during Fields’s stay in the New York City sequence has a profound effect on him and alters his course of action.

I won’t give away any more about the plot because I enjoyed The Thief a lot more than I thought I would. The details about 1950s spying were interesting, especially from a historical perspective. The film builds in suspense and tension, leading to a chase and an action sequence that had my stomach in a knot. The increasing suspense comes from being in Fields’s shoes. Almost everything in the narrative is told from his perspective, and viewers have no choice but to see everything from his point of view. He is betraying his country, but without him, there is no story. Thus, it is almost impossible not to identify with him, even if you don’t have any sympathy for him and what he is doing.