THE BURGLAR (1957)

It's never a good sign when a film sits unreleased for years until one of the actors becomes famous.  But that's exactly what happened with THE BURGLAR.  It was made in 1955 and then sat unreleased until 1957 after Jayne Mansfield found mainstream success with THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT.  And it's kinda easy to see why it sat for two years:

First off, those promises in the posters are total bullshit.  "You'll be tense with suspense and limp from excitement!"  It's more like I was limp from not giving a fuck.  "They set up a luscious blonde as bait for the robbery of the century!"  What the fuck are you talking about?  Yes, the criminals sent in Jayne Mansfield to case(!) the house.  That's it.  Later on, Dan Duryea went in and stole one necklace worth $150,000.  That's hardly the "robbery of the century".  "An army of police...and the underworld hot on the scent of the beautiful burglar mixed up in the robbery of the decade!"  Well, now you've already reduced it from the robbery of the century to the robbery of the decade.  And...it was only the cops on their trail and not the underworld at all!  Plus, Mansfield was not the burglar.  She stayed at home during the one and only burglary.

As far as the lame story goes...A burglar (Dan Duryea) successfully steals a "priceless" necklace (which is immediately valued at $150,000), but due to all kinds of amateur mistakes made on his part, he soon finds that the necklace is more trouble than it's worth.  His biggest mistake is not pulling the robbery alone or maybe with just one person to case the the joint.  Instead, he uses his step-sister (Mansfield), who's secretly in love with him(!!!), to go in and scout the location.  Alright, that's fine.  But then later that same night he parks directly out front of the mansion and then he and his two(!!) partners go onto the property while he does 100% of the work!  The other two don't do shit.  Being that it's an very upscale neighborhood, the police start investigating the car and from there on it the whole plan goes to hell.  He does manage to steal the necklace, but since doesn't even have a buyer lined up, he decides it's best if they all four simply hang out in their rented house until...I'm not sure what.  This ends up being a horrible plan (duh!) due to the fact that 1) they're still in the area of the robbery and 2) all three of his partners instantly start to go stir crazy!  Including his step-sister who still wants some of Dan Duryea's delicious ding-dong!

THE BURGLAR is not a bad film, just one that should have never been made.  Uninspired script, lame overacting by the entire cast, uneven photography that's boring most of the time and then kinda cool for brief moments, slow as molasses pace, unlikable characters, dumb decisions nonstop.  On the other hand, Jayne Mansfield is very attractive and probably turns in the best performance of the entire movie.  I normally like Dan Duryea, but goddamn his character was dumb.

I would say "Skip it.", but it was good for a laugh.

TAXI DRIVER (1976)

"You talking to me?"

Vietnam vet Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) suffers from insomnia and, most likely, some sort of mental disorder.  As the film begins he lands a job as a taxi driver in NYC.  The long overnight hours don't help his fragile brain and he soon begins to lose his already faint grasp on reality.  By some stroke of luck, he lands a date with the attractive Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) who is a campaign worker for a presidential candidate.  The date goes about as disastrous as you would expect.  This pushes Travis closer to the edge and the last thing in the world Travis needs right now is to buy some guns and become obsessed with an underage neighborhood prostitute.

TAXI DRIVER is still, even all of these years later, a powerful film and a fascinating look into a man that has a whole host of mental issues.  The film never gets to the root of his problems (it would've been great if we knew more about his childhood or his stint in the military) and at times the film is so dream-like that the viewer doesn't even know if what's on the screen is real or not!  Travis is also a walking ball of contradictions...he writes in his diary about being healthy but yet he's constantly popping pills and eating crap food; he speaks of purity but spends his free time in porno theaters; he whines about his crushing loneliness but yet when he's around his co-workers all he does is stare in silence...it's like he's subconsciously contributing to his problems.  A self-fulfilling prophecy.

You often see TAXI DRIVER on lists of Greatest Films and while I do like it and definitely have a lot of respect for it, I'm not putting it on my Best Films list.  That'll probably upset some people, but since this is my own personal blog then I can do whatever I want.  For example: here's a link to THE ABOMINATION.  Why?  Cuz the movie's awesome.  My reasons though, if anybody does care, are: the story is not violent enough; there's way too many pedestrians staring at the camera; the entire dancing scene should have been left out (it's boring and I think it detracts from the fact that nearly the entire film is from Travis' view); the horrible desaturation of the colours in shootout scene (yes, I understand this was to appease the pussies at the MPAA, but it's still a perversion of Scorsese's vision and it's lessens the impact of that jaw-dropping scene) and I think the film should have ended right as that unbelievably amazing overhead tracking shot leaves Iris' bedroom.  That exact moment was the emotional height of the film and the remaining few minutes only detracted from the film.  Disagree?  Think I'm an idiot?  Then quit reading my shit.  Go away.  I look at it like the freeze-frame at the end of ROCKY.  That exact moment was the pinnacle of Rocky's life so it made for the perfect ending.  Travis Bickle, on the other hand, his goal was to be the rain that would "wash all this scum off the streets" as he says at the beginning of the film.  This moment was his wildest suicidal fantasy come to life.  To go out in a blaze of glory while killing some of the "degenerates" that are destroying the world...

"Listen, you fuckers, you screwheads. Here is a man who would not take it anymore. A man who stood up against the scum, the cunts, the dogs, the filth, the shit. Here is a man who stood up."

Anyway, that's just my uneducated two-cents.  I could be right or I could be wrong.  Either way, I still highly recommend TAXI DRIVER and think that it's a landmark in American Cinema.  If you need me I'll be in my room eating a cereal bowl full of white bread pieces with sugar, milk and peach brandy poured on top.