The Cat Burglar
The B movie has one of its kings in the person of William Witney, a champion of the serials. From 1937 onward he shot 23 consecutive ones — and he’s not even the most prolific. Witney always denied any artistic pretension, yet Spielberg himself acknowledged being inspired by him when working out certain scenes in “Indiana Jones.”
And the fact is this director was a born specialist in action, for which he poured out boundless energy, while also introducing genuine innovations. Take fight choreography, for instance — until he came along, brawls were filmed in one continuous take. Witney had noticed that actors ran out of steam almost immediately; taking his cue from the king of musical choreography, Busby Berkeley, he cut the action and inserted dialogue pauses that gave everyone a breather while keeping the punch-ups intense — and meanwhile he could reposition the camera.
From 1955 onward, William Witney devoted himself entirely to television, directing episodes of wildly varied series: Dr. Fu Manchu, The Virginian, Bonanza, Tarzan, or some of those stories introduced by Hitchcock. This work didn’t stop him from returning to theatrical B pictures, but at a far slower pace than in his golden years; in the 1950s and 1960s he made only two or three films.
In 1961, Gene Corman — Roger’s brother — produced “The Cat Burglar” for him: the breezy tale of thieves, loan sharks, and spies we offer here. A minor title that affords us a breath of fresh air through its very lack of pretension and its eagerness to give us a pleasant time; it’s a new, unspoken remake of Fuller’s “Pickup on South Street” (Manos Peligrosas). Of course Jack Hogan is no Richard Widmark, just as Warren Beatty was no Richard Widmark in “Bonnie Parker Story” — but compensation comes from the boarding-house keeper played by Billie Bird, the loan shark Gene Roth (a frequent magistrate before Perry Mason, looking uncannily like Fritz Lang), and the portly detective Bruno VeSota, a true legend in the Corman stable. Three incentives weighty enough, in any case, to spend some time in the company of William Witney’s “Cat Burglar.”
A fine way to pass the time.
ENTERTAINING.