W.R. Burnett’s Typical Vibe
Signature vibe

Highest-ranked title
Highest-ranked title
W.R. Burnett has 5 titles in the CriticCrunch catalog across a career spanning the 1940s through the 1960s. 1 sits in the Top 1% of all titles we track — including The Great Escape.
Recurring themes

The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.
Dir. John Sturges · With Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough

Given a pardon from jail, Roy Earle gets back into the swing of things as he robs a swanky resort.
Dir. Raoul Walsh · With Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart, Alan Curtis
In 1867, a gang robs a bank and flees into the desert. Out of water, the outlaws encounter a ghost town called Yellow Sky and its only residents, a hostile young woman and her grandfather.
Dir. William A. Wellman · With Gregory Peck, Anne Baxter, Richard Widmark

Sadistic killer-for-hire Philip Raven becomes enraged when his latest job is paid off in marked bills. Vowing to track down his double-crossing boss, nightclub executive Gates, Raven sits beside Gates' lovely new employee, Ellen, on a train out of town. Although Ellen is engaged to marry the police lieutenant who's hunting down Raven, she decides to try and set the misguided hit man straight as he hides from the cops and plots his revenge.
Dir. Frank Tuttle · With Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Robert Preston

A top-secret Soviet spy satellite -- using stolen Western technology -- malfunctions and then goes into a descent that lands it near an isolated Arctic research encampment called Ice Station Zebra, belonging to the British, which starts sending out distress signals before falling silent. The atomic submarine Tigerfish, commanded by Cmdr. James Ferraday (Rock Hudson), is dispatched to save them.
Dir. John Sturges · With Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan
Top Collaborators
Directors with 2+ shared titles, ranked by frequency