The City of Brotherly Love is that and then some in this Philly-based crime story written by David Goodis for his smudged hometown. With first-time director Wendkos, Goodis finally gets a shot at a pulp film equivalent to his dusky novels. Dan Duryea plays Nat Harbin, the ringleader of a small gang of thieves. He plans the heist of jewels from a flamboyant spiritualist, but a crooked cop gets wind of the scheme, and everything goes south. Never one to fuss over a plot, Goodis is more interested in the queasy connection between Duryea, his “adopted” sister, and their long-dead dad, a veteran burglar. An incestuous fog seems to permeate the proceedings as Duryea dotes on his mollish sis, played by Jayne Mansfield just before she hit it big with The Girl Can't Help It. The Burglar would be considered a late noir, but not too late for Wendkos's flamboyant imagery, dramatic use of close-ups, and dreamy soliloquies of sin and suffering.