How to Steal a Million

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. ****

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.

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.

A charming adventure comedy. It revolves around good-hearted art forgery and the need to set thing right. The basic plot is rather implausible, but it hardly matters. There is a great chemistry between the primary characters and the story is pleasantly devoid of attributes that would prevent the film from being enjoyed by anybody from 10 years-old and up. The blend of mild suspense, gentle comedy and a bit of romance is not too intellectually provocative, but it makes for great fun. It's a film I can sit down an watch with my teenage daughter, my younger son, my wife and my mother, and everybody has a good time and comes away feeling better than when they sat down.