The Thief

With a gimmick like this, you're probably gonna say, "Wow! They actually pulled off telling a story for 90 minutes, despite having no dialogue." Whereas the producers probably wanted you to be saying: "Perfect! The lack of speech wonderfully underscores Milland's isolation, in a way that having conversations wouldn't." Unfortunately, I only felt the latter (rather than the former) in a couple of places--most notably, in the parking lot scene outside the baseball game.

I knew the gimmick going in and was a bit apprehensive. It turned out ok, but I still could have done without it. In a way it doesn't ever feel totally out of place, every scene works fine with only ambient sound and no dialogue, but as a whole the lack of spoken word calls attention to itself. Otherwise it's a rather tight little spy film with some creative moments and while I felt the chase scene towards the end was a bit drawn out it was quite captivating and I liked the ending.

Its lack of dialogue isn't its biggest problem. That honor goes to some of the leaps that the film takes without explanation. Milland is decent (could have probably been better with dialogue though). Does a decent job of building up paranoia. As film noir goes, I'd say skip it.

A difficult film to rank. On one hand, it's gimmicky and rather clunky in places, but on the other hand it's a compelling story with several moments of incredible suspense. It starts off very slowly, but he more the film progressed, the further I found myself getting drawn into Milland's world of duplicity and deception. The fear, the paranoia, the guilt... all heightened by the fact that he quite literally has nobody to talk to.

Why not a noir with no dialogue? Not a word is uttered in this look at a scientist selling secrets to the enemy. Is the gimmick pulled off well? For the most part, yes. There is one "cheat" but it stays true to the conceit without seeming forced. There wasn't a scene where I felt dialogue was essential. There's a refreshing ambiguity, unanswered questions that are rare in noir. And it's a tight thriller with a fine chase scene, psychological tension, great location work, and a very good score.