How to Steal a Million

Leave aside for the moment the two leads, Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole, both at the very pinnacle of their star power and attractiveness. Leave aside, too, the brilliant support of two comedy masters, Eli Wallach and Hugh Griffith. And the sheen of William Wyler's direction, honed to perfection over a long, award-winning career. And the sparkling dialogue of old-pro scenarist Harry Kurnitz. And the beautiful location photography in that most beautiful of cities, Paris. And John Williams' sprightly score, and the rich production design, and the exquisite costumes, and every other perfectly-executed facet of this gleaming gem of a film. And concentrate on one single moment: in the museum, in the cupboard under the stairs, when Audrey Hepburn's character realizes that Peter O'Toole is going through everything he's going through, including breaking the law even though he's a policeman, simply because he's fallen in love with her. The expression on Hepburn's face is one of those truly sublime moments that make movies what they can be: bigger than life, more real, more joyous, more true. And for that alone we can be grateful that this movie is available for us and our posterity to enjoy.

Somehow Audrey Hepburn made fluffy romantic caper movies look

like high art. Take this adorable trifle directed by William Wyler

with Audrey looking glorious in her trademark Givenchy clothing.

Audrey could have phone in a performance, but she's totally

enchanting as always, making us overlook the seams in the script.

She's beautifully supported by Peter O'Toole, who never looked

handsomer or more Cary Grant-ish in his life as Simon, the art

expert who gets talked into stealing Audrey's father's statue of the

Cellini Venus back from the museum when it is learned the statue

has to be authenticated for insurance purposes.

Hugh Griffith, as Audrey's father, is a delightful rogue of an art

forger and Charles Boyer and Eli Wallach just add to the fun. The

actual theft of the statue is quite ingenious, if a little too drawn out.

Still, here's two hours of pure enchantment. That Ferrari still looks

good nearly forty years later, and if Audrey was walking down Fifth

Avenue, dressed in Givenchy's stunning creations today, she'd

cause a riot. Check out that lace cocktail dress with the matching

lace mask at the bar of the Ritz in Paris! It doesn't get any chicer

than this.

If you are searching for a movie with wit, charm and delightful comedy in it, you've found it. "How to Steal a Million" is perhaps one of the finest Audrey Hepburn's films around. It's the story of a reclusive though slightly devious painter and forger (Hugh Griffith) Charles Bonnet who aside from his practice of recreating masterpieces and selling them to eccentric private collectors decides to donate a priceless but fake sculpture from his private collection to the La Fayette museum to be viewed by the general public. Not wanting to lose it to theft without compensation, the museum insures it for $1,000.000 dollars. However the insurance company wants it appraised to see if it's genuine and calls in an expert who will use modern techniques to ascertain it's authenticity. If it's discovered to be a fake, the painter, his reputation and his family will be ruined. Thus his beautiful daughter Nicole (Audrey Hepburn) must hire master bugler Simon Dermott, (Peter O'Toole) to steal it from the heavily guarded museum. At the same time, she is being pursued by Davis Leland (Eli Wallach) an American millionaire who wants to marry her. What neither Nicole, nor her father suspect is that Mr. Dermott is more than a shy bugler, he too is interested in the painter's secret hobby and his daughter. Excellent film for the family. ****

The trio of William Wyler directing, Audrey Hepburn as a charming French woman in need of help and Peter O'Toole as the dashing fellow who agrees to commit a crime for her seemed at first glance to many film aficionados to be potentially a fine partnership for making a winning comedy. "How to Steal a Million" in fact turned out to be atmospheric, very French, very sophisticated and a great deal of fun. The clever story and screenplay by George Bradshaw and Harry Kurnitz worked almost everywhere, I suggest. Some of the film's humor seems obvious to me--the use of rotund Gallic comedian Moustache borders upon parody at times; but this is a fundamentally light-hearted romp of a film from its flimsy but serviceable premise to its satisfying romantic conclusion. It is a comedy; and it turns upon O'Toole's ability to devise a means of stealing a well-guarded art object from a major French Museum, a physical feat which he proves to be quite capable of achieving. The reason he is asked by Hepburn to plan that robbery is that the lovely statue now on display is about to be examined and authenticated by experts--and her father created the work, as he has created so many others, his charming and adroit forgeries. There are several other currents at work in the plot as well; there is a U.S. buyer after the piece, Hepburn 's belief that her champion is a crook turns out to be an unfounded assumption, and he is falling in love with her as she is with him throughout the unfolding of actions and events. The production is expensive-looking but never "heavy" in feel to my way of thinking. Givenchy did Miss Hepburn's gowns, Charles Lang was the cinematographer, and the production design by Alexander Trauner and the bubbly music by John Williams both served the story very strongly. In the cast, O'Toole and Hepburn seem perfectly mismatched; she is a bit inconsistent, I believe not knowing how "old" to play her part; O'Toole is intelligent, and plays both a crook with a sense of humor and a romantic admirer of Miss Hepburn's very successfully. Her father who proudly but inadvertently loans the piece to the Museum and misses the clause relative to its being examined by experts is Hugh Griffith, who suggests as much as he blusters. His likability is the key to the plot, because if he were not talented and likable and worth saving, the viewers would not accept the story-line'e basic premise--much ado to save him. Eli Wallach is bright as usual as the obsessed would-be buyer; others in the cast include Charles Boyer, Fernand Gravey, Marcel Dallio, Jacques Mann, the aforementioned Moustache and Roger Treville. The film is often discussed as if it were a trifle, a cinematic glass of champagne and a delightful and only a bit-overlong comedy. the attitudes expressed miss the three points of the film...It is noir, since the police cannot be brought into the case; it is comedy, which means its tone of light-heartedness and clever dialogue is very often exactly right; and its sub-plot is adventure, a very daring and ingenious combination of psychology, physical paraphernalia and enjoyable suspense. It is well-liked by many, and as a writer, I am certainly one of its admirers..

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What makes a movie like this so wonderful? It's probably just an age thing (I remember seeing this movie at the cinema), but when I saw it again recently I just felt a sense of joy and pleasure and, yes, optimism. Now these are words that may be almost incomprehensible to today's jaded, cynical and, often, brutalised audiences, and I am sure that many would see this movie as slow, naive and totally irrelevant.

But for me the effortless playing, the perfect timing and understated sophistication is so much more intelligent, witty and rewarding than the clunking, crude sign-posted so called "rom-coms" of today.

This is not their best film by any means, but to watch O'Toole and Hepburn playing off each other with such natural and fluent grace is simply magical. Lighthearted fluff like this completely works when the actors really know what they are doing.

And has there ever been anybody who is simultaneously so sophisticated and vulnerable as Audrey Hepburn? There is a scene where she is wearing a chaste little nightdress and she put on a pair of ordinary street galoshes. As she clumps across the room she displays more sex appeal and sheer class than any of today's moussed up, made up, blown up actresses could ever comprehend.