Larceny

Larceny

3/9/1948 1h 29m 5.8/10

Overview

Rick Mason is the no-good lowdown rat who tries to capitalize on postwar patriotism and grief. He finagles a war widow into giving up her savings for a nonexistent memorial. When Mason falls in love with the widow he has pangs of conscience, but he reckons without his con-artist boss, who tends to bolster his arguments with muscle and bullets.

Director

George Sherman

Top Billed Cast

Shelley Winters

Shelley Winters

Tory

John Payne

John Payne

Rick Mason

Dan Duryea

Dan Duryea

Silky Randall

Joan Caulfield

Joan Caulfield

Deborah Owens Clark

Dorothy Hart

Dorothy Hart

Madeline

Richard Rober

Richard Rober

Max

Reviews

CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

7/9/2022

7/10

Poor old war widow "Deb" (Joan Caulfield) is hoodwinked into donating her savings to build a memorial to her late husband by the sharp "Rick" (John Payne). It turns out that there is no such edifice, but "Rick" isn't able to be quite as cold and calculating as usual. He starts to fall for this dignified and respectable woman. That's a risky scenario, for his boss "Silky" (Dan Duryea) just wants the cash, and that's that. It doesn't help either that his bosses gal "Tory" (Shelley Winters) is pretty flaky, also quite keen on "Rick" and is quite shrewd at manipulation, too! Payne was never exactly versatile nor, for that matter, was the usually wooden Duryea but they do well enough with this solid story and whilst there is an inevitability to the ending, George Sherman manages to keep this well paced for 90 minutes and Winters plays her part really quite effectively. The lighting could have done with some extra wattage at times, but it is still good watch.

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