Peter Ustinov provides the comic relief in Dassin caper classic
TOPKAPI (Jules Dassin, 1964)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
Sunday, October 3, 1:00, 4:10, 7:20
Series runs through October 21
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org
We’re suckers for heist films. Just give us THE HOT ROCK (Peter Yates, 1972), THE ANDERSON TAPES (Sidney Lumet, 1972), THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (John Huston, 1950), THE KILLING (Stanley Kubrick, 1956) — heck, even THE BRINK’S JOB (William Friedkin, 1978) — and we’ll settle in for a great coupla hours. But the king of them all just might be Jules Dassin’s ultrahip TOPKAPI, about a group of multicultural thieves who plan to steal the world’s most priceless emerald from a bejeweled dagger in Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. The movie is worth seeing just for Ms. Mercouri herself, who opens the film by talking right to us, luring us in with her alluring sex appeal and endless charm. And oh, those clothes, especially the emerald green outfit with her nails painted to match. Maximilian Schell, Peter Ustinov, Robert Morley, and others join in for the elaborate plan that has been ripped off in so many movies ever since. And we were happy to see that they really got things right, shooting on location in Turkey, because we’ve been to Topkapi Palace, and the Topkapi dagger is indeed breathtaking. We deleted a quarter star because some of the scenes with Ustinov are a bit long and awkward, but the rest is simply marvelous. TOPKAPI is screening with Nick Park’s WALLACE & GROMIT IN THE WRONG TROUSERS (1993), part of Film Forum’s awesome series “The Heist,” which includes all of the aforementioned flicks and more, continuing through October 21.