After being released from prison, a career criminal puts together a crew for a major jewel heist, but things go wrong and the crew is soon betrayed by their backer as the police close in. Wildly regarded as the first heist movie, setting the template that all others would follow: the planning, the crime, and the aftermath. It races through the planning, doesn't spend all that much time on the crime, and then way too much on the aftermath. The marketing now might place a lot of emphasis on Marilyn's appearance, but her role is so small she isn't even listed in the opening credits. Still, she has more screen presence than most of the cast.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Ageing gangster Tony (Jean Servais) along with his friends Jo (Carl Möhner) and Mario (Robert Manuel) team up with Italian safecracker César (Jules Dassin) to pull off the seemingly impossible burglary of an exclusive jewellery store in the Rue de la Paix. After McCarthyism got him blacklisted in Hollywood, Dassin went to Europe and made some of the best films of his career, starting with this French classic. Plot-wise it is very similar to The Asphalt Jungle, but improves on everything that film was doing, especially in regards to the heist itself which is a breath-taking, tension filled, near silent 30 mins of pure cinematic magic.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Career criminal Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) masterminds the theft of $2 million from a racetrack, but loose lips and poor decisions cause his perfect plan to unravel. This was Kubrick's third film as a director and his first true masterpiece. Made on a low budget with documentary-style focus and precision, it explores the various ways that even the most carefully thought out plan can be undone by basic human weakness, sheer bad luck, and a poor choice of suitcase.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Bitter after being forced out of the army following 25 years of loyal service, Lieutenant-Colonel Norman Hyde (Jack Hawkins) recruits a group of disgraced former officers to help rob a bank in the City of London. British heist films were always more comical than their American counterparts. This is more about the planning of the crime and the playful banter between its colourful cast of characters. The actual heist is over in a flash and the fallout is frustratingly brief and anti-climatic.
Rating: ⭐⭐
After Roman Holiday and The Children's Hour, this was the last of three films Audrey Hepburn made with William Wyler. Nicole (Hepburn) lives in Paris with her father Charles (Hugh Griffith), a renowned art collector who forges everything he sells. Charles lends his fake Cellini Venus statue to a museum, only to discover it will undergo a forensic examination as part of the museum's insurance policy. Desperate to prevent her father's crimes from being exposed, Nicole hires gentleman thief Simon Dermott (Peter O'Toole) to steal the statue before it can be examined. By the 1960s, as hard boiled film noir fell out of fashion, heist movies evolved into breezy capers, often little more a flimsy excuse for charming movie stars to run around in glamorous locations being exceptionally flirty with each other. That's basically all How To Steal A Million is, but the leads don't really have the strongest chemistry with each other, although it's still refreshing to see Hepburn actually playing off against a man her own age.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Charlie Croker (Michael Caine), recently released from prison, quickly breaks back in to get the support of crime lord Mr Bridger (Noël Coward) for a plan to steal $4 million in gold bullion being transported through the city of Turin. Being a Brit, it is probably treasonous of me to say that The Italian Job isn't all that great. It's a set-piece in search of a plot, getting by mainly on the charm of Sir Michael in his prime equipped with some of his most famous lines (“You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!”). But once the crooks make their big escape in those iconic Mini Coopers, it becomes such infectious fun you can't help but get caught up in it all and sing along to the theme tune. Oh, and that literal cliff-hanger ending is one of cinema's all time greats.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Mark Greig has been writing for Doux Reviews since 2011 More Mark Greig
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