Crime nevertheless does not spend, but occasionally it can appear excellent and be oh so charming. If you have robust sufficient charisma and a compelling sufficient program of action, you can pull a huge audience in with the thrill of a exciting time. A notable instance is Richard Linklater’sHit Man which swiftly became the #1 film on Netflix shortly soon after release serving as an indication of people’s hunger for living on the wild side. For a different instance, appear at a piece of 1960s hip entertainment with 100% on Rotten Tomatoes named How to Steal a Million, with Audrey Hepburn and Peter O’Toole as two connivers who group up to develop into art thieves with scintillating outcomes.

How to Steal a Million

The daughter of an art forger teams up with a burglar to steal one particular of her father’s forgeries and shield his secret.

Actors

Audrey Hepburn, Peter O’Toole

Release Date

July 13, 1966

Run Time

123 mins

Director

William Wyler

Studio

20th Century Fox

What Is ‘How to Steal a Million’ About?

Nicole Bonnet (Hepburn) is the daughter of a incredibly profitable art forger named Charles Bonnet (Hugh Griffith), whose faux copies of iconic paintings have provided them a lavish life-style in Paris. She consistently warns him that he’ll get in difficulty for his profession decision, but to no avail. When Charles decides to give a copy of a Venus statue to a museum, he unknowingly permits the museum to forensically examine it, which will certainly prove it is a phony and ruin his life. Nicole can’t let that, and so she vows to steal the statue from the museum. In order to do so, she calls upon the support of Simon Dermott (O’Toole), a dashing art thief that she caught attempting to steal one particular of her father’s fake Van Gogh paintings. It’s a all-natural oil paint meets watercolor paint match created in Heaven, as the two will engage in a classic bickering back-and-forth that is so naturally delightful and effortlessly entertaining.

The dynamic in between Nicole and Simon is one particular constructed about tolerating their irritation with every other for the sake of a shared purpose. This is in line with numerous of the very best relationships constructed on two folks who will not cease sniping at every other. Nicole finds Simon to be louche, ingratiating, and awfully insisting on his personal charm. Simon finds Nicole to be a poor liar, moody, and a huge goody-two-footwear. And but what trounces all of these character mismatches is how definitely they are into every other from the jump, with Hepburn and O’Toole wasting no time in acting like they are not providing every other appears and not becoming all that bothered by becoming so close. It’s honestly incredibly wholesome for two folks brought collectively by the require to break the law.

While Nicole’s and Simon’s chemistry currently tends to make sufficient sense on the web page, what raises it into becoming the primary purpose to see the film is the casting of Audrey Hepburn and Peter O’Toole. Whether intentional or not, the film plays with a cute level of self-awareness about how the stars’ personas of the two match and mingle with every other. Hepburn was basically the closest issue Hollywood had to a princess (Grace Kelly does not count due to the fact she left Hollywood as soon as she really became royalty). Hepburn was a style and style icon who dazzled every person with her humility and demeanor that produced a tractor beam that numerous had been powerless to. O’Toole, on the other hand, was an enigmatic troublemaker who could make all of his red flags disappear with his confident appear and permanent smirk. As Simon himself completely describes the distinction in between her and him, “you are an aristocrat and I am a humble burglar.” This is pretty much objectively a mismatch of personalities, and but pairing them creates magic in the way they build a tug-of-war in between every other. Hepburn tries to pull O’Toole up to her level of sensibility, although O’Toole tries to yank her down to his level of delinquency, and we keep blessed for their mutual work.

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It will have to be stated that there is a fantastic irony in how Hepburn, in unique, permits herself to be portrayed. By this point in her profession, she’d been evolving away from the pristine doll roles she’d gotten renowned for and moved on to extra daring roles that toyed with her image. Some of these notable examples incorporate arguably two of her most iconic roles, in Breakfast At Tiffany’s and My Fair Lady, with audiences loving seeing her a small bit jaded and a small bit dirtier, respectively. With How to Steal a Million, the film has its cake and eats it also, letting Hepburn be each the refined lady every person loved but also be a rule breaker on her terms.

She breaks into a museum to rob it, but only for the sake of assisting her father. She’s decked to the nines in the chicest of mod-influenced outfits, but also has to dress like a dusty scullery maid for the heist program to function. That setup leads to probably the funniest line of the film, exactly where Simon cracks that “it gives Givenchy a night off,” referring to Hepburn’s genuine life fixation with becoming dressed by style designer Hubert de Givenchy all through her profession. The film is so giddy to admit how a lot exciting it is to have the princess from Roman Holiday slumming it in the swinging ’60’s, and the vibes are infectious.

William Wyler’s Direction Emphasizes Comedy Over Thrills

For director William Wyler, whose handling of several shades of dramatic storytelling led him to be amongst the most Oscar-friendly filmmakers in history, this film was a marked shift for him. While he’d performed a soft romantic comedy with Roman Holiday, he’d in no way performed a film as broadly comedic as How to Steal a Million is, and he’s clearly placing far extra stock in the film’s comedic prospective than other components. He goes as far as to goose small moments with goofy sound effects, like huge drum bangings or slide whistles becoming paired with the clownish responses of the characters. A far cry from the higher-wire daredevil tricks of other notable heist films like the Mission: Impossible franchise, or even the cool precision of Jules Dassin‘s Rififi, it feels extra in line with the original Ocean’s Eleven, starring Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. That film prioritized chemistry with its cast and hanging out in lavish places more than the actual heist mechanics. Similarly, Wyler a lot prefers watching Hepburn and O’Toole deny their affection for every other than dig into the specifics of the heist. There are not even that numerous specifics to go more than, as the heist itself winds up becoming very effortlessly constructed about practical placement of keys and the guards not becoming excellent at their job.

That’s not to say that the film’s negligible interest in heist science is a substantial flaw, extra that it is a conscious selection on Wyler’s behalf. It’s a pure film star film, exactly where the audience will only care insofar as the leads are asked to hold scenes all on their personal. Why bother with whether or not their program would really function when Hepburn and O’Toole are on fire anytime they are inside 5 feet of every other, and the film is so committed to its leisurely tourism. It appears like a fair trade-off, as there is no shame in indulging in a fantastic hang-out film every single as soon as in a although, and How to Steal a Million will leave you content that you got two hours stolen from you.

How to Steal a Million is at the moment offered to rent or purchase on Prime Video in the U.S.

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