I Was a Shoplifter

 (1950)
Directed by Charles Lamont
Written by Irwin Gielgud
Starring Scott Brady, Mona Freeman, Andrea King, Tony Curtis
IMDB Entry

The title I Was a Shoplifter is an odd one. The structure portends some sort of big event, but when you get to the final word, it disappoints.* Shoplifting is usually a pretty minor crime.** Still, the movie ends up being quite good despite it.

It starts with a narrator talking about the crime of shoplifting, then we see Faye Burton (Mona Freeman) moving suspiciously through a department stores, gaining the attention of store security and Jeff Andrews (Scott Brady), who warns her she's being watched. When she leaves, she is picked up, and Andrews is, too.  Faye is daughter of a judge and doesn't want the incident known. She signs a confession, which the store will keep on file and use against her if she's caught again, and she is let go. 

Once she leaves,  Jeff comes out. He's an undercover cop pretending to shoplift. There has been a ring working the city, recruiting young shoplifters -- usually woman -- who get caught, and then manipulate them into shoplifting for them, promising to steal the confession.  Jeff wants to break of the ring.

Ina Purdue (Andrea King) approaches Faye and brings her into the gang and Jeff, who has been keeping an eye on her, volunteers to also join the gang. 

The movie becomes a tutorial for shoplifting tricks, and soon Faye is set up to do her first job.  But things go wrong. There's a chase scene that doesn't go the way you would predict, and a search to find the real mastermind of the ring. And, of course, Jeff and Faye fall in love.

The most notable performance is that of Andrea King. Ina is a very smart woman -- probably smarter than Jeff. You can't put much over on her, and there is a particularly good scene where she explains that they have no way of escaping the police, so their smart move is to just surrender.

Tony Curtis has a small role as Pepe, one of the gang's thugs. It was his fifth credited role.  Larry Keating, who plays the store owner, later became familiar as Wilbur Post's neighbor in Mister Ed.

The movie is surprisingly good and Andrea King probably should have become a bigger star than she was.

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*Compare it to I was a Teenage Werewolf of I was a Communist for the FBI.

**Yes, I'm aware of the big shoplifting rings that are in operation today, but most shoplifters tend to pick up a couple of items.