Topkapi

Connecticut-born, HUAC blacklisted, director-in-exile Jules Dassin of "Brute Force" fame pokes fun at his earlier crime caper movie "Rififi" (French-1955) with "Topkapi," a leisurely, light-hearted lark about an elaborate crime set in Constantinople in the early 1960s loosely based on an Eric Ambler's novel "Light of Day." "Topkapi" qualifies as one of the top ten heist capers of all time. Mind you, the filmmakers had to abide by the censorship rules of the day which dictated that crime could not pay. Adroitly, they skirt the issue so that realism never intrudes too serious on their amoral shenanigans. The actual heist itself is a breath-taking. Naturally, later filmmakers would imitate it.Larcenous Elizabeth Lipp (Melina Mercouri of "Never On Sunday") must steal a priceless sultan's jewel-encrusted dagger from the Topkapi Palace museum in Istanbul. She induces a former lover, Walter Harper (Maximilian Schell of "Avalanche Express"), to plot the operation. A Swiss native who's the epitome of efficiency and urbanity, Walter lays down several ground rules that he forces Elizabeth to accept. He demands that their accomplices all be amateurs without criminal records. Since they have no criminal records, they should be able to elude the world's best policemen. He stipulates the three cardinal rules of thief. First, plot meticulously. Second, execute cleanly. Third, don't get caught before, during, or afterward. Indeed, Walter doesn't want anybody with a criminal record as a participant.The first conspirator that Walter recruits is portly Cedric Page (Robert Morley of "Beat the Devil") who is a genius with all things mechanical. He creates all sorts of toys in his studio, including a cute, little mechanical dog that walks and barks. He has a facsimile of a parrot that records voices and plays them back. He explains to Elizabeth and Walter that the museum boasts a complex alarm system. If you so much as bounce a ping-pong ball on the museum floor, it will trigger their sophisticated alarm system. Clearly, stealing the dagger cannot be accomplished with the usual smash and grab tactics of conventional crime thriller.Instead, Walter concocts an intricate plan for entering the museum without touching off the alarms and he brings in a strong man, Hans Fisher (Jess Hahn of "Bad Man's River"), and an aerial artist Giulio the Human Fly (Gilles Ségal of "Without Apparent Motive"), who work together in tandem. Rather than enter the museum in the obvious, ordinary way, the thieves plan to ascend from the roof. Next, Walter pulls in a con artist, Arthur Simon Simpson (Peter Ustinov), a small potatoes thief who takes advantage of tourists and looks for schmucks. Elizabeth and Walter hire him to take a Lincoln convertible across the border to Istanbul and leave the keys for a Mrs. Plimpton. Arthur is likeable enough because he is a bumbling thief. He is so cretinous that he doesn't even realize that his Egyptian passport has expired so that when he tries to pass through customs, the Turks detain him, point out his expired passport, and then thoroughly search his automobile and discover a dismantled rifle and several grenades.Initially, they accuse Arthur of being a terrorist, but he convinces them that he hasn't a terrorist bone in his ample torso. The authorities accept his explanation that he is just ferrying the car across the border, but they still insist that he is part of a terrorist plot to kill their leaders in an important day not far off called Army Day. The Turkish authorities agree to release Arthur as long as he serves as their informant. They instruct him in how to pass messages to them without his bosses knowing about his perfidy. They tell him to hide his messages in a cigarette package that is empty and throw it away as litter and their agents shadowing him in a Volkswagen will retrieve them. Reluctantly, in over his head more than he could have imagined, Arthur has to go along with their plan.The beauty of Danischewsky's screenplay is the way she creates obstacles that not only the thieves but also the authorities encounter. Once Arthur delivers the car, he has no reason to continue as part of Walter's well-thought out scenario. The authorities refuse to let Cedric drive the car because he is neither the owner nor does he have a driver's license. Only the owner or a qualified driver, the police explain, can drive the car in Turkey. Cedric calls on Arthur and Walter has a new knot in his plan that he doesn't like but must unravel for the success of the heist. The authorities are constantly on the tails of our thieves. Plans go further awry when Jess tries to get tough with Arthur and Arthur slams Jess's hands in an iron grate, ruining them. Originally, the heist called for Jess to use his enormous strength to hold the ropes that they planned to use to suspend Giulio from the roof of the museum. The suspense escalates when Arthur accidentally reveals that the Turks suspect them of being terrorists, not thieves. Furthermore, the Turks--who keep them under constant surveillance--have taken many photos of them, only to learn that none of these people have a criminal dossier!Dassin's wife Melina Mercouri toplines a top-drawer cast, including a hilarious Peter Ustinov who received not only the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, but also copped the Golden Laurel award, along with similar Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe nomination. Scenic and suspenseful and shot on actual locations, this spine-tingling tale about several intrepid thieves is a delight to watch, unless you are afflicted with attention-deficit-syndrome. Like its intricate crime, "Topkapi" spins out a lot of plot in "Battle of the Sexes" scenarist Monja Danischewsky's screenplay that adds one character to Ambler's original story and shuffles the others in order of priority. Nevertheless, you'll quickly understand why Peter Ustinov walks off with top acting honors. He ushers in hilarity and bolsters the suspense with is dizzy antics.Director Jules Dassin paces "Topkapi" for maximum suspense right up to the last five minutes when you still aren't sure what's going to transpire. Masterful entertainment with a delightful score by Manos Hadjidakis. The DVD comes only with a trailer. Would that there had been a commentary track for this memorable movie!

This is a classic caper film, and the basic plot is that a group set out to steal a bejeweled dagger from the Topkapi museum in Istanbul. They devise ingenious solutions to defeat the museum’s security features, and recruit Peter Ustinov as an “ innocent foil” to bring guns into Istanbul, and he becomes enmeshed in the scheme to steal the dagger, with often hilarious results.

Most people will likely be disappointed in this movie. If you have not seen it before here is a rundown on those who might want to consider avoiding it:(1) If you got this because it was directed by Jules Dassin and thought this would be like the excellent  Rififi (Criterion Collection) (Blu-ray + DVD) , it is not. Not even close. Other than both having "capers" in them, the tone, quality, everything is totally different. Unless you were told Dassin directed it, you never would have remotely guessed it.(2) If you are under 30. I am not, and really like movies from the 60s (Topkapi is 1964). But even for me, the first 15 minutes or so of the movie was painful based on the overuse of disco light special effects and a hard to understand monologue in a very thick and unattractive accent. Vast majority of young folks will find it way too cheesy (I disliked the first 1/4 and found the last 3/4 interesting mostly from a historical perspective).(3) Those who read the official description of it being "a skillfull blend of romance and comedy". I was OK with it not having any romance, but there was zero romance here. Anyone looking for romance, or hoping this could be a good date night movie, will be disappointed. The official description of the movie over exagerates just about everything in the real movie.(4) Listening to the hype of this movie being the genesis to Oceans 11, etc. Yes, that is partly true, and you can see it in spots. Maybe it was as groundbreaking for the time as some say. But by today's standards, it really has not held up well (again, I enjoy most older movies).What did it having going for it? It does have a good cast. It can be funny at times. And there are just enough moments where you see how other later movies borrowed from it that it will give film buffs a smile. But mostly when you see them it reminds you just how much better those more recent movies are, not just due to time, but to execution as well. If not for the cast and the final heist scene this would be a two star affair.The bluray is not great, but I'm sure it is an upgrade over what else is out there. I found it highly watchable on the big screen with no major complaints for a film this age. If you've seen this before and liked it, and debating on the bluray, I wouldn't hesitate to get it.

Nine years after creating a classic heist movie, Dassin reworked it in a colourful and light-hearted form.Instead of Paris in B/W and pouring rain, we have Istanbul in glorious colour.Instead of revenge, treachery and murder amongst thieves, we have unity and a humourous element provided by Peter Ustinov.The exquisite detail of the actual heist is reproduced, albeit with credibility issues and light-heartedness.The self-indulgence is principally centred on Melina Mercouri, Dassin's wife at the time and a superb actress. Alas, Dassin restricts her dramatic talents in this film to simply oozing charm throughout. Her wonderfully expressive eyes are utterly captivating, but she serves just a one-dimensional role in being simply charm personified.Whether this was Dassin bragging about having such a desirable wife or using the film as bait for others to cast her in their own films, I don't know. I wish her role had been given more depth.One definite plus over Rififi is that the conclusion to the fim happens very shortly after the gripping heist scene. Rififi was spoilt by such a long sequence of activity after the quite superb heist scene in that.

Exelent classic movie. This IMPORT version Region 2 from The Netherlands does have Subtitles in Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish ,Swedish, Greek and Subs for Hoh in English and German. The language on the backside(text) of the cover is in Dutch an French.As a separate comment NOT for this dvd. :I stil do not understand why Amazon does not enforce compulsory correct mention of subtitle(s) and Region when Dvd's or BluRay' s are offered for sale. Those are some of the most important things for a buyer to known about those items. It is one of the basics on wich a buyer decides if it's a usefull or useless item for him. I also do not understand why some dvd-producers bring out dvd's or Blu Ray's in just 1 language without any subs or with just subs in the same language. (For instance French language and French subs or Spanish language and Castellano subs.) Those idiot-dvd-producers ignore the fact that many foreigners might have also bought their product if they would have the brains to considder including subs in other languages!

What a lot of fun this film is. Melina Mercouri is a fullblooded femme fatale and she teams up with an elegant Swiss gentleman burglar (Maximilian Schell) for a daring jewel heist in Istanbul's Topkapi palace. A motley crew of further accomplices make up their gang: Robert Morley as the Englishman who can help them disable the security system, the mute acrobat Giulio, and hapless petty crook Arthur Simpson played by a scene stealing Peter Ustinov, whose endearing performance was deservedly rewarded with a best supporting actor Oscar.The setting in sunny Istanbul is glorious and, being filmed on location, the fillm uses the vistas and vibrant street life of the city to its fullest. The film may be dated, but it is nonetheless highly enjoyable.A few words about the DVD I bought: While the letterbox 1.66 : 1 ratio may not be perfect (it takes a lot of fiddling with the TV to get rid of the black edges on all four sides without distorting the proportions), the picture is surprisingly good with vibrant colours. The film is presented with the restored original Mono soundtrack, the sound quality is very good and all dialogue is clearly understandable. English subtitles are available. Also subtitles in various other languages (all advertised in the product description, plus Swedish and Greek). Also dubbed audio in German, French, Italian, Spanish. Run time: 1 hour 55 mins.

An odd transfer. Excellent 16.9 ratio, perfect picture, good sound and good Optional English subtitles, but the whole is placed in the middle of my screen, surrounded by black bars. On a big screen, it perhaps doesn't matter too much, and as I say, it's a fine picture, so, maybe it's OK, just unecessary in my view. The film? I am a bit surprised that a director like Jules Dassin with an admirable track record (BRUTE FORCE/NAKED CITY/NIGHT AND THE CITY and of course the stand alone classic RIFIFI), could fail to make this caper movie fun to watch. Is it the way he films his wife Mercouri - talking to the camera, laughing a lot oh a lot, and it isn't pretty, or the way the final robbery just drags on and on when it should be tense and edited in a tighter fashion. That's not to say the film doesn't have it's moments, but again that depends on how much you like Ustinov and the stars. I found it odd that Dassin films his wife very unflatteringly and there is little or no chemistry between her an Schell. Still the location filming is good, some of the robbery is good, but the bottom line is that it seems Dassin doesn't find comedy to be that easy. Still some thing here and there to enjoy and many will violently disagree with me about MM. Currently not cheap, which is, in itself a bit of a puzzle.

The previous reviewer has already highted the main problem with this release - the fact that it is region A locked, and therefore witll not be playable on Blu-ray players in the UK unless they have been modified to be multi-region. If like me you are in that fortunate position, then it is a major advance on the non-anamorphic DVD version and well worth getting.Although not benefiting from restoration, the pirture quality is pretty good, with no apparent fading and only slight speckling to indicate that it isn't taken from a negative. The highight of the film, as in Dassin's earlier film Rififi, is the heist itself - the four star rating reflects the fact that, for me the rest of the film doesn't reach this standard.

Topkapi, very much of its time, and rather dated now. Peter Ustinov steals the show with his performance, and rightly won an Oscar. The film is a crime caper to steal an ancient jewel dagger in Istanbul. The actual crime is entertaining and exciting to watch, and the escape is classic. "A little bird told me."