Word: crooked
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WILLIAM G. CROOK...
...young woman just out of prison (Viviane Romance) who makes such an impression on the depressed M. Heer that he gives up his macabre photographic exploits to fall in love again. The unfortunate thing is that the girl has come home to live with the small-time crook for whom she took a jail sentence...
...gradual and carefully shaded realignment of audience sympathies is the main moving force of the film. Opening impressions of the hero leave you with a generally uneasy feeling about him, while you might think that the crook and his girl are well along on the way to honesty. Consistently high-level supporting actors, superb camera work, and a good script are instrumental in the slow change. Where the film shows its honesty is in the final acceptance by the girl of the necessary double-crossing of her middle-aged admirer to throw police off the trail of her criminal lover...
...first, Matsukichi was like any other crook. But then he grew softhearted. "When a baby cried in a home I was robbing, I went away leaving the place untouched," he said. He also began to lecture his victims, telling them: "Your house is too easy. You should have lights over your doorway or you should keep a dog." His victims were so grateful that they seldom bore a grudge against him. "I was always filled with joy," he said, "and my heart overflowed with thanks...
...finds that an elderly G-man (Art Smith) is also after the crook. The picture develops into a sort of three-legged rat race, carried on against the background of a small-time posh hotel, a grim little cantina and a turbulent fiesta. The movie has some well-written, better-spoken tough talk, plenty of menace, and some sharp violence. A good deal of it is just routine pocket thriller. But thanks to Director Montgomery and Producer Joan Harrison there is also some good New Mexican location atmosphere...