Seven Thieves (1960)

Photographed in black-and-white CinemaScope. Lenses supplied by Bausch & Lomb. Westrex Sound System. Producer: Sydney Boehm. Copyright 1960 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Paramount: 11 March 1960. U.S. release: January 1960. U.K. release: March 1960. Australian release: 7 April 1960. 9,178 feet. 102 minutes.SYNOPSIS: An aging American gangster, Theo Wilkins, hoping to pull off one last grand coup before he dies, masterminds a sensational plot to rob the Monte Carlo gambling casino of $4 million. He enlists the aid of six others, including Melanie, a stripper, and Raymond Le May, the casino director's secretary, who will arrange for the other four's admittance on the night of the Governor's Ball. While Paul Mason, Wilkins's "right arm" and Louis, a safe cracker, break into the vaults, Theo poses as the personal physician of an eccentric crippled millionaire in a wheelchair, impersonated by Melanie's partner, Poncho.NOTES: Bill Thomas was nominated for an Academy Award for his Costumes, losing to "The Facts of Life" (black-and-white category).COMMENT: Alas it's very obvious that this film was made entirely in the studio with unconvincingly obvious stand-ins doing an occasional walk through the real French locations then a jump-cut to Steiger, Robinson, Collins etc. against a process screen. The film also tends to be a bit long-winded and dialogue bound and one of the original centers of interest suffers by being originally conceived for Mai Britt who was actually cast in the film when shooting commenced. Although the part was re-written for Joan Collins, she was obviously a second choice and suffers from poor camera angles and Hathaway's characteristically nonchalant direction of his players. The other players are as good as their material with the exceptions of Alexander Scourby and Eli Wallach who are even better.Once the film gets into stride with the robbery sequence itself — and in fact all the casino scenes — it becomes quite engrossing and there is some good dialogue for Robinson and Sebastian Cabot. But then the interest tends to peter out again, but fortunately the film concludes — somewhat unconvincingly it is true — before too much damage is done.Photography is rather flat especially in the exterior scenes where the process screen is used. Production values are little more than adequate, whilst Hathaway's direction is little more than safely and commercially routine. Even his well-known penchant for violence is noticeably absent here giving one the impression of a flaccid yarn, flaccidly told. Tighter film editing would help.

*Spoiler/plot- Seven Thieves 1960, A large crew plans a European 4 million casino heist to help an old pal.*Special Stars- Rod Steiger, Edward G. Robinson, Joan Collins, Eli Wallach, Sebastian Cabot, Alexander Scourby, Michael Danta, Berry Kroeger.*Theme- Justice can come in the place of vengeance.*Trivia/location/goofs- B & W, European. Watch for a very lovely stripper dance from a 19 yr old Joan Collins.*Emotion- A wonderful mega star cast of international characters that take the audience through their biggest 'caper'. The acting is wonderful.*Based On- crime books of the 50's.

Henry Hathaway is a very underrated director;think that his brilliant filmography includes poetic escapist movies ("Peter Ibbetson" ) adventures movies ("Lives of a Bengal lancer is the prototype of the genre)westerns ("Garden of evil" ) war movies ("13 Rue Madeleine" ) and of course thrillers : films noirs such as "Call north 777" or suspense stories like "23 paces to Baker Street" .He even mixed western with whodunit à la Agatha Christie in " Five cards stud"."Seven Thieves" belongs more or less to the thriller genre and Hathaway displays his extraordinary sense of suspense :the scene of the window and of the guy who gets dizzy or the moment when Wallach has to swallow a pill which might mean his death .We can also notice his perfect mastery of the wide screen: a shot shows on the right Joan Collins walking across the casino while on the left the Duc de Salins is talking to the detective."Seven thieves" is thoroughly enjoyable ,very well acted ,with actor's studio thespians such as Steiger and Wallach -but there is nothing intellectual in this film-,veterans like E.G.Robinson (his death predates the extraordinary sequence in Fleischer's "Solyent Green" (1974))Joan Collins is as good a night club dancer as she is a so called socialite (Madame de la Cruz).Nice shots of the Riviera and Monaco/Monte Carlo.

Remember "Mission: Impossible"? The TV series, not the movie. It was always fun to watch the team pull off one of their stunts, because they balanced their Rube Goldberg concepts with NASA-quality planning. This movie is cut from the same cloth. It's about a casino robbery engineered during one of the gambling hall's biggest celebrations. The eponymous crooks must work in synchronized unison to fulfill their plan. Unlike the MI series, though, they aren't all quite equally devoted to their mission or, at least not to their particular roles within it. Still, they have a clever series of steps that get more interesting to watch, even as it seems increasingly likely that the plan will succeed.Along the way, there are some interesting mixtures of personality types, some mysterious backgrounds waiting to be uncovered, and a degree of slipperiness that make it hard to be sure just who we should be rooting for. Indeed, part of the charm of this film is that there are _no_ "good guys," yet we want the thieves to get away with their crime.A nifty, thoughtful piece, with little action and no sfx (in the current sense, anyway). An added plus for some of us is a pair of fairly sexy dance numbers a 27-year-old Joan Collins does "nearly naked," as her character puts it. She was at her physical prime in this film, but don't underestimate her acting ability. She carries the sole female role with every bit as much mastery as Wallach, Steiger, and the oddly endearing Edward G. Robinson carry theirs. John Beradino (the original "Dr. Hardy" of TV's "General Hospital") has a small role, and Marcel Hillaire appears as more or less the same character he would play dozens of times in TV guest spots for the next few years.7/10, recommended if you've had your fill of explosions, CGI, or Tom Cruise.