Topkapi
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Movie Reviews of Topkapi
Movie Review: Excellent Adaptation of Eric Ambler Book
Summary: 5 Stars
The 1964 movie Topkapi was based on British novelist Eric Ambler's 1962 best seller "The Light of Day". I am often wary of watching movies of books I have liked but director Jules Dassin has done a terrific job. He has taken one of Ambler's more lighthearted, almost whimsical, suspense novels and turned it successfully into a lighthearted, funny suspense movie.
The plot is straightforward. Elizabeth Lipp and Walter Harper (wonderfully played by Melina Mercouri and Maximillian Schell) plan to pull off the heist of a lifetime. They want to steal a priceless, jewel-encrusted knife and scabbard from the famed Topkapi palace/museum in Istanbul. Harper realizes that if they are successful the world's police will go after every known jewel thief in the world. Harper and Lipp decide to recruit non-professionals with useful skills to pull of an ingeniously planned heist. To that end they recruit Arthur Simpson. Simpson is something of a part-time con man. Part English and part Egyptian Simpson makes a living hustling tourists in Greece.
As the plot develops Dassin takes us on a grand tour of Istanbul as it looked in the early 1960s. Dassin and his cinematographers do a great job conveying the sights and sounds of the city. Although the movie is played for laughs in some respects the planning and execution of the robbery makes for great viewing. The robbery itself is bold and audacious and Dassin and the cast do a great job in creating a feeling of tense anticipation as the movie reaches its climactic moments. It should not be a surprise that the creator of the TV series Mission Impossible was inspired by Topkapi. It may be a surprise to find out that there was a museum robbery in New York six months after Topkapi whose planning and execution was based on the film.
The acting throughout is excellent. Peter Ustinov won a Best Supporting Actor Academy award for his portrayal of Simpson. Mercouri was both funny and flirtatious and carried off her role flawlessly. The great character actor Akim Tamiroff also did a great job playing a the always drunk, raging chef to the jewel thieves.
Topkapi is a fun, lighthearted movie. It is well worth seeing.
L. Fleisig
Movie Review: A fascinating guide to the jewel of the Dardanelles...
Summary: 5 Stars
Melina Mercouri introduces herself as a thief who doesn't hide the way she feels about the most wonderful emeralds... She wants to rob a dagger encrusted with fascinating gemstones...
One of her potential partners is her former lover Maximilian Schell, a very distinguished crook who fights at his best when he fights in a corner... Schell wants to pick his crew from amateurs with no police records, and strike the most protected fortress...
Peter Ustinov won his first Best Supporting Oscar for his amusing performance as the clever middle-aged 'nobody' who could have gone far but he always plays for small stakes...
Ustinov is the victim of circumstances, caught at the Turkish border with a riffle and six grenades... For that, his mission is to spy on the spies, and report to the Turkish security everything he overhears-no matter how trivial it may seem to him... The police gives him a chance to prove that he is not a terrorist... He accepts to work with them...
With a funny toy man who proposes to get into the palace museum without touching the floor; a mute acrobat who talks with his whole body; a mad muscle man who hates a drunken cook; a showman with no problems at the customs border; plus Islamic mosques; ancient streets; colorful bazaars; oiled wrestlers; talented belly dancers; and fable roofs; "Topkapi" overlooks both the Sea of Marmara and the Bosphorus, offering bright moments with a final suspense sequence in the 'Rififi' manner...
Movie Review: MY FAVORITE USTINOV PERFORMANCE
Summary: 5 Stars
My favorite Peter Ustinov movie role is in Director Jules Dassin's 1964 comic thriller.
Ustinov won an Academy Awardİ as a hapless small-time black-marketer oblivious to the real scheme of jet-setting thieves Maximilian Schell and Melina Mercouri who plan to steal a priceless, jewel-encrusted dagger from Istanbul's Topkapi museum. When the authorities nab Ustinov, he agrees to act as a spy in order to thwart the planned robbery. Eventually, he must choose between saving his own skin and betraying the alluring Mercouri. Ustinov's marvelously accented, self-serving, sweaty, rumpled, petty, whining, obsequious character is all the more remarkable because it's what he brought to the project and not defined in the screenplay.
The movie is terrific, but one can also argue that Ustinov's fleckless performance alone makes this a must see. From MGM. (1964, Not Rated, Widescreen, 120 Minutes))
Movie Review: As Fresh Today As It Was In 1964
Summary: 5 Stars
which is due, in large part, to the quality of this particular DVD (wide-screen version). The colors are vibrant, the sound good.
An early "caper" film, Topkapi set the standard for the genre, with an interesting plot, a beautiful location (many consider the city of Istanbul to be the star of the film), and a great cast (Peter Ustinov later won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film).
Although I purchased it after a (very pleasant) trip to Istanbul as a way to relive that visit, I found myself enjoying every aspect of the film. This is one you turn on and want to keep watching all the way through to the end.
Sadly, Melina Mercouri (1920 - 1994) and Peter Ustinov (1921 - 2004) are no longer with us. This is a great chance to enjoy them as they were in their primes.
Highly recommended.
Movie Review: A blast from the past
Summary: 5 Stars
With a first rate cast, a stunning setting (the city of Istanbul), and an engaging plot and story line, this movie is definitely one of the oldie-goldies of the period. Ustinov won an Academy award for best supporting actor, if I remember right, for his role, but the whole cast is outstanding. The city of Istanbul in some ways is the star of the show, as one gets to see many of the city's famous sites during the course of the movie. And having visited the Topkapi palace myself recently, I can say that part of the movie was accurate. :-) Overall, a great flick and one still worth viewing today, and its caper plot set the standard for and influenced many subsequent "heist" movies.