Topkapi ***** (1964, Melina Mercouri, Peter Ustinov, Maximilian Schell, Robert Morley, Akim Tamiroff) – Classic Movie Review 3,670

Jules Dassin’s splendidly entertaining 1964 heist caper movie Topkapi is based on Eric Ambler’s novel The Light of the Day. It features a lovely cast of Melina Mercouri, Maximilian Schell, Robert Morley, Akim Tamiroff and Oscar-winning Peter Ustinov.

Director Jules Dassin’s splendidly entertaining five-star 1964 heist caper movie Topkapi is taken from Eric Ambler’s 1962 thriller novel The Light of the Day, with a screenplay by Monja Danischewsky.

It features a lovely cast headed by mercurial Melina Mercouri, Maximilian Schell, Robert Morley, Akim Tamiroff and Peter Ustinov in his best supporting actor Oscar-winning performance as a con-man called Arthur Simon Simpson.

Mercouri (as Elizabeth Lipp), Morley (as Cedric Page), Schell (as Walter Harper) and Tarimoff (as Gerven the Cook) are all vying for best over-acting performance, but Ustinov would certainly win that award too.

Director Dassin films the theft of a precious dagger from Istanbul’s Topkapi Museum to thrilling effect and gets full value from the Turkish picture-postcard views, shot in Technicolor by cinematographer Henri Alekan. And there is a notable score by Manos Hadjidakis.

Most memorably, Dassin also made the classic heist thriller Rififi (1955) and also directed his wife Mercouri in Never on Sunday (1960). Dassin’s best Hollywood films are Brute Force (1947), The Naked City (1948) and Night and the City (1950).

Also in the cast are Gilles Ségal as Giulio the Human Fly, Jess Hahn, Despo Diamantidou, Titos Vandis, Ege Ernart, Joseph Dassin [Joe Dassin], Senih Orkan, Ahmet Danyal Topatan and Amy Dalby.

Topkapi is directed by Jules Dassin, runs 120 minutes, is made by Filmways, is released by United Artists, is written by Monja Danischewsky, based on Eric Ambler’s thriller novel The Light of the Day, is shot in Technicolor by Henri Alekan, is produced by Jules Dassin, is scored by Manos Hadjidakis and is designed by Max Douy.

Melina Mercouri in Topkapi (1964).

The Topkapi Palace, built by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II in 1459, became a museum in 1924. Its hundreds of rooms contain collections of historical and religious relics, treasures and jewellery. In Turkish, Topkapi means Cannon Gate.

Ustinov previously won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Spartacus (1960).

Bruce Geller names Topkapi as the inspiration for his Sixties TV series Mission: Impossible.

Ambler’s novel The Light of Day is narrated by Simpson. Ambler wrote a sequel to The Light of Day, the 1967 novel Dirty Story, in which Arthur Simon Simpson relates a further adventure as a reluctant mercenary in Africa.

Dassin planned to cast Peter Sellers as Arthur Simon Simpson and Orson Welles as Cedric Page but Sellers dropped out and Welles refused.

The cast are Melina Mercouri as Elizabeth Lipp, Peter Ustinov as Arthur Simon Simpson, Maximilian Schell as Walter Harper, Robert Morley as Cedric Page, Jess Hahn as Hans Fisher, Akim Tamiroff as the cook Gerven, Gilles Ségal as Giulio the Human Fly, Titos Vandis as Harback, Joe Dassin as Joseph, Ege Ernart as Major Ali Tufan, Senih Orkan as first shadow, Ahmet Danyal Topatan as second shadow, Despo Diamantidou as Voula, Jules Dassin as Turkish policeman, and Amy Dalby.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3,670

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