The Thief (1952)

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  (74 ratings)

For his directorial debut, Ray Milland went out on a creative limb, resulting in the first American film since Chaplin's City Lights without any spoken dialogue. The Thief stars Milland as Allan Fields, a nuclear physicist who has sold out to a foreign power. With only a few tinges of conscience,… More For his directorial debut, Ray Milland went out on a creative limb, resulting in the first American film since Chaplin's City Lights without any spoken dialogue. The Thief stars Milland as Allan Fields, a nuclear physicist who has sold out to a foreign power. With only a few tinges of conscience, Fields sets about to steal vital scientific secrets and smuggle them out of the country. With the FBI on his trail, he briefly hides out in a rundown tenement house, where he inaugurates a desultory romance with a sluttish woman (Rita Gam, making her auspicious film debut). On the verge of escaping without detection, Fields is forced to commit a murder and things quickly go downhill from there. The novelty of silence (except for natural sound effects) is intriguing at first, though it wears off rather quickly; still, Ray Milland deserves at least a gold star for trying. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi