"The Rainbow Thief" is a very frustrating film to watch. Parts of it are very good and quite memorable, such as the early scenes with Christopher Lee as well as Omar Sharif's performance. But the film, overall, is a boring mess...as well as having one of Peter O'Toole's weaker performances.
When the story begins, a bunch of greedy relatives come to Rudolf's estate...ostensibly to suck up to him since Rudolf (Christopher Lee) is elderly and very rich. However, he slips in to a coma and stays there for years!
In the meantime, the film switches to the poorest part of the city. A man calling himself 'Prince Meleagre' )Peter O'Toole) lives in the sewers and seems quite happy with his craptastic life. Much of it is because the thief, Dima (Omar Sharif), takes care of Meleagre...bringing him food and whatever else he wants. Why? Because Dima has been told that when Uncle Rudolf dies, Meleagre will be his heir...and Dima wants money and the good life.
The performance by Sharif is truly unusual and very physical for the 58 year-old man. He is very good as the thief. As for O'Toole, he mostly acts weird like his character from "The Ruling Class" but without any energy or fun. As for the plot...it's an acquired taste...one that I certainly did NOT acquire! I found the overall film to be wonderful in parts but completely unsatisfying as a whole.
By the way, if you were wondering what sort of dog Meleagre has, it's an Irish Wolfhound...Irish like O'Toole. It's the tallest dog breed in the world. I actually found the dog much more interesting than the film itself!
