John Payne is basically playing a Cary Grant part of a devilishly delightful con man, but Payne plays it straight. The lies he can tell under the most heart-wrenching circumstances are breath taking. The "tension" of the film is not really based on the money or the time. The ever-increasingly cruel lies Payne's character forces himself to tell, right up to the climax, is what "turns the screw." But, without the little gleam in Cary's lovable scoundrel eyes...On the other hand, Shelley Winters is delightfully DANGEROUS. Dan Duryea is thick as thieves. And speaking as a retired fraud investigator myself, I'd say it's a pretty realistic depiction of a gang of cold-blooded sociopaths. But overall, I think they simply couldn't make up their minds what this movie was "about." It could have been a sappy melodrama, or a snappy noir comedy. But, it's not quite a dramedy. Not quite a classic. Absolutely worth watching.
Review of Larceny
