How to Steal a Million

In her third and final film with William Wyler, Audrey Hepburn did a most stylish caper comedy in How To Steal A Million. Despite the title being a complete misnomer because it's not about currency, francs, pounds, or dollars, the film is a delightful romp from start to finish.

Things are about to come crashing down around the family business of art forgery that Hugh Griffith and daughter Audrey have been carrying on. A statue of Venus that Cellini supposedly did, but is a forgery that Griffith's father did some years ago is about to undergo some routine tests that were not available years ago. They will certainly disclose that the statue is a fake and while Griffith's business is forging paintings instead of sculpture the authorities might start looking him over as well.

In fact when Hepburn catches gentleman cat burglar Peter O'Toole trying to steal a Van Gogh, she actually lets him go lest the Van Gogh be investigated. Later on she looks him up when she hits upon a plan to steal the 'Cellini' statue from the museum and might have need of O'Toole's skills in such matters.

The caper part of How To Steal A Million is the most fun and I won't say a word about it except that O'Toole hits on a really good idea involving the use of a toy boomerang. The whole caper nearly boomerangs as well as Hepburn and O'Toole have to spend some considerable time in a museum broom closet where they get better acquainted.

That part of the film also calls for Hepburn to get rid of the Givenchy gowns she was known for and wear the simple dress of a museum cleaning lady. Audrey still looks good in that.

Hepburn and O'Toole have some really nice chemistry, a pity they didn't do more films together. Hugh Griffith is a favorite character actor of mine, he has the wildest and most expressive eyes of any player in history. Griffith can do more with one upturned brow than Olivier can with a page of dialog. Audrey and Hugh both appeared in William Wyler films before and received Oscars for their performances, Audrey in Roman Holiday and Hugh in Ben-Hur. Audrey also did The Children's Hour with William Wyler as well.

And looming over all is the city of light, Paris which should have received some billing as well. Then again, that city never gives a bad performance on film.

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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Peter O'Toole shows Audrey Hepburn "How to Steal a Million" in this 1966 caper film directed by William Wyler. The film also stars Eli Wallach, Hugh Griffith, Charles Boyer, and Fernand Gravey.

Hepburn plays Nicole, the daughter of a renowned art collector, Bonnet (Griffith), who in fact is not a collector but an expert forger. He has lent his famous Cellini Venus to the Paris Art Museum, only to find out that before it can be insured, there will be a technical test to assure its authenticity.

Since it's a sculpture, and the chemical makeup was different from the material in the 14th century, the forgery will be easy to detect.

In order to help her father, Nicole Bonnet contacts Simon Dermott {O'Toole) whom she caught when he broke into the house she shares with her father, and asks him to steal the Venus from the museum.

In the '60s, caper films were all the rage, and it would be hard to miss with two such beautiful and sophisticated stars as Hepburn and O'Toole. Their chemistry is great, the caper is clever, and the dialogue is witty.

The supporting cast is excellent; someone said Eli Wallach was miscast as an obsessive collector. Originally Wyler cast George G. Scott, but he was replaced when he arrived on the set late. Scott would have been more tycoon-like.

Like bubbly champagne, "How to Steal a Million" tickles and delights throughout.

Highly recommended.

William Wyler crafts a delightfully frothy caper backed up by wonderful on screen chemistry between Peter O'Toole & Audrey Hepburn. It seems to me that Hepburn always managed to bond with her Male co-stars, and here the interplay between O'Toole and herself is wonderful. Check out a long sequence of events involving the pair hiding out in a closet, it's gold dusted cinema.

The film's central plot involves Hepburn & O'Toole planning a daring robbery from a Paris museum to keep her art forger Father (a delightful Hugh Griffith) out of trouble, at first the couple are purely business partners with no love lost for each other, but as the story plays out the pair are forced to get along and etc.

The burglary itself is dramatic, attention grabbing entertainment, and it's also the film's highest point, but overall the film as a whole is simply good romantic fun. Also helps that it features a very tidy shift for the finale to further reward the audience for their time spent with the movie. Throw in dapper turns from Charles Boyer & Eli Wallach too, and it's all good really.

Open the wine, sit back and relax with Pete & Audrey. 8/10

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. ****