How to Steal a Million *** (1966, Audrey Hepburn, Peter O’Toole, Eli Wallach, Hugh Griffith, Charles Boyer) – Classic Movie Review 5,682  

Peter O’Toole and Audrey Hepburn make a lovely couple and sail effortlessly though the chic and stylish 1966 American heist comedy caper film How to Steal a Million. 

‘Meet a Couple of Smart Operators Who Give a Lesson in Love and Larceny’

You might expect something a little bit more polished and classier – maybe wittier and even a bit more substantial – from this cast and crew.

But the bright cast spark up writer Harry Kurnitz’s and producer-director William Wyler’s so-so light-hearted 1966 romantic comedy caper How to Steal a Million about a legendary art forger called Charles Bonnet (Hugh Griffith) wanting to retrieve his copied Benvenuto Cellini Venus statue from the Paris gallery he has lent it to.

The Venus was actually sculpted by Nicole’s forger grandfather, modelled after his mother. Charles knows he can never sell it, because scientific tests would reveal it as a fake, and make his entire art collection suspect (though his Van Gogh is a forgery too). 

His daughter Nicole (Audrey Hepburn) hires a society burglar called Simon Dermott (Peter O’Toole), who turns out to be a detective, to help to pull the million dollar statue heist on the Paris Kléber-Lafayette Museum, before it can do tests on the Venus that would prove it a fake. Charles has signed the museum’s standard insurance policy, unaware it includes a forensic examination.

O’Toole and Hepburn make a lovely couple, and sail though it effortlessly, though they are often upstaged by wily old scene-stealers Charles Boyer (as O’Toole’s boss DeSolnay), Eli Wallach (as an art collector Davis Leland) and of course Hugh Griffith as Charles Bonnet.

Also notable in the cast are Fernand Gravey, Marcel Dalio, Jacques Marin and Moustache.

The very mid-Sixties-style chic movie looks nice and glossy in Charles Lang’s DeLuxe colour, 35 mm Panavision widescreen cinematography. Piling on the chic, Hepburn’s clothes are designed by Hubert de Givenchy, and the production designs are by Alexandre Trauner.

How to Steal a Million is based on the 1962 story Venus Rising in Practise to Deceive by George Bradshaw.

Naturally, though this American film is set and filmed in France, the actors speak entirely in English.

Unexpectedly, with the stars at the height of their popularity and heist comedy films very much in vogue, it flopped at the box office and made a loss. Costing $6.4 million, it took $4.4 million in US cinema rentals, a shock for 20th Century Fox.

The cast

The cast are Audrey Hepburn as Nicole Bonnet, Peter O’Toole as Simon Dermott, Hugh Griffith as Charles Bonnet, Eli Wallach as Davis Leland, Charles Boyer as DeSolnay, Fernand Gravey as Grammont, Marcel Dalio as Señor Paravideo, Jacques Marin as Head of Security, Roger Tréville as Auctioneer, Edward Malin [Eddie Malin] as Insurance Clerk, and Moustache as Guard.

It runs 123 minutes.

The score is by John Williams.

It was released on 13 July 1966 in the US and 19 August 1966 in the UK.

When George C Scott didn’t show up until after lunch on his first day of shooting, William Wyler fired him and replaced him with Eli Wallach.

How to Steal a Million is directed by William Wyler, runs 123 minutes, is made by World Wide Productions, is released by 20th Century Fox, is written by Harry Kurnitz, based on the 1962 story Venus Rising in Practise to Deceive by George Bradshaw, is shot by Charles Lang, is produced by Fred Kohlmar and William Wyler, and scored by Johnny Williams [John Williams], with production designs by Alexandre Trauner.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5,682

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com