It Don't Pay to Be an Honest Citizen on AllMovie

The comedy and thrills are a little anemic in this movie based on a real-life experience of director Jacob Burckhardt. Warren (Reed Bye) is accosted in Brooklyn one evening by rather unusual muggers -- they steal his can of film (this movie's first version?). Warren is alone in his anxiety over his work being lost for good, since the police, his neighbors and friends, and several other characters including the muggers themselves are not deeply moved by his problem. This motley crew misuse him, harass him, threaten him, or they just offer advice. In spite of the efforts of poet Allen Ginsberg as a shady lawyer and William Burroughs as a shadier Mafioso, the stolen film recedes into the murky distance, taking with it the conclusion to Warren's dilemma.