This is a snappy little number (68 minutes!) starring Kay Francis (who, in 1935, was Warner Bros.'s highest-paid actress, out-earning Bette Davis $115K to 18K) as the bored gold-digger wife of an older (55!) rich man and William "Thin Man" Powell as the titular robber (which he prefers to "thief" he tells us). It's based on a play by the Hungarian writer Ladislas Fodor, and it just occurs to me that there were a lot of American films around that time that seemed to be based on Hungarian plays (most famously, The Shop Around the Corner) and the interesting thing is that they never seemed to move them to American locations. They just had American actors playing characters with names like Baroness Teri von Horhenfels (Francis's character in this one). Perhaps that's because a common feature of these stories is rather shocking behavior and attitudes (in this one, for example, Teri and her friend openly joke about just marrying for money and having men on the side) that the American producers assumed their audience would not forgive in American characters, but would be par for the course for Eurotrash. Anyway, there really isn't much to this one: it opens with Teri having her morning bath (yes, this is definitely pre-code - you don't see anything but you almost do) and talking about how bored she is (at one point she is describing her day to somebody and when asked what she does of an evening she says "Veranol," which was the name of a barbiturate -I had to look it up). The only thing that gets her excited is knowing that her rich husband is going to buy her a fabulous ring that she's had her eye one (there have been a rash of jewel robberies in the Vienna in which this is set, and when her friend tells her about the latest, she anxiously checks to see if it's the particular jewelry store where she has the ring reserved - it isn't). She and her friend go there ahead of the husband, who is a government bigwig, and brings along a younger colleague with whom, it becomes clear as her husband goes with the jeweler to a back room to haggle the ring price down from $50,000 (in 1932!) she has been having an affair. However she lets him down gently as apparently he bores her. (He is none too pleased. He is a war hero, after all!) At this point William Powell (who is never named, I now realize) shows up with his gang and very politely robs the store. The Baron tries to hide a ring in his mouth but Powell's robber finds it - however when he sees that it is a gift from Teri, he lets him keep it. However, he takes the ring that Teri had her eye on. Then he offers a "cigarette" to the jeweler which makes him first very giggly and then fall asleep (and Powell says that it's harmless but he will have a marvelous appetite in the morning. As the "cigarettes" proliferate throughout this film it began to feel like we were watching a Cheech and Chong movie), before herding Teri's husband and ex-lover into a vault. Teri keeps evading being shoved in the other one, however, and eventually the robber, who has clearly fallen for her, gives up and takes her at her word that she will give him a head start and not alert the police. (The security for the store, a character called "Lenz" has already helped load the loot into the waiting getaway car under the impression that he's helping a customer. Then he's rewarded with a tip and the rest of the doobies, which he goes on to share with his at-first-surly superiors later.)
Teri is taken in for questioning and reports that the robber was "short and fat" but gives nothing away. The police manage to capture one of the gang (I think he was the lookout) but can't pin anything on him. Later at Teri's house she is recounting everything to her friend when she gets the impression somebody has broken in. There is a huge vase of flowers on display that her housekeeper (who seems a bit simple) knows nothing about and the door to her safe is cracked open. However, there's nothing missing - in fact, there's something new: the ring has been added! This is a mixed blessing, however, as the ring was reported missing and if she wears it, it will look like she's in cahoots. Then Powell shows up and reveals that in the back of the safe he's hidden all the diamonds from the store. They get to chatting but then the police show up, specifically a very nosy Detective "Fritz" who is instantly suspicious and in fact finds all the stolen jewels. He's about to haul Teri away when Powell comes out from hiding and takes the jewels at gunpoint and is about to escape when Fritz's men burst in and capture him. Teri and Powell are then both dragged off to what Teri thinks is the police station... but turns out to be Powell's house ("in the suburbs") - Fritz is one of the gang! So Powell has managed to get Teri to his house for a romantic meal. At her request he shows her all the jewels he has stolen (she is dazzled, and runs her hands through some "like a boy running his hands through sand at the beach")
while he says that he needs to get out of town for a while, maybe to go to Nice. She says she'll meet him there and heads out. As he's getting ready to leave, he realizes she's made off with the leather bag that had all the diamonds that he'd stored in her safe. By this point she's only managed to get to his front door (it's a big house and they were three stories up) where she sees cops arriving. She goes back up to warn him but refuses to escape over the roof with him. So instead he ties her up so she won't be accused of collaboration. There is some excitement involving a chase across the roofs (obviously a set, but a good one) and Lenz falling down a well, but we end up back at the Baron's house, where it is clear that Teri is no longer under suspicion. "I feel exhausted from all the ordeal" she says "I think I need a break. Somewhere like... Nice..." and she turns, locks eyes with the camera, and walking towards us makes the finger-on-the-lips "shh!" sign.
A fun little diversion, with the usual pacing oddities that you find in early 30s films (it feels longer than the hour length because of all the talking). Definitely a must watch for pre-code aficionados, with some very good badinage between the two principles. Apparently Kay Francis acquired a reputation of always wearing the most divine outfits and she wears a backless number throughout most of this one where it's a mystery how it stays up.
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