Topkapi

In 1955, blacklisted American filmmaker Jules Dassin directed the French heist drama Rififi, one of the greatest caper movies of all time and the inspiration for a slew of imitators. In 1964's Topkapi, Dassin spoofs the genre and Rififi in particular, right down to the elaborate heist played out in a long, wordless sequence. But where Rififi is a gritty film noir shot in shadowy black and white, Topkapi is a colorful romp with eccentric characters and comic complications taking place in the sun-kissed beauty of Istanbul. World-traveling adventuress Elizabeth Lipp (Melina Mercouri, Dassin's wife) recruits old friend and criminal mastermind Walter Harper (Maximilian Schell) to help steal a priceless artifact from the Topkapi museum. Walter concocts a near-perfect plan for a group of amateurs with special skills, but their unwary driver, Arthur Simon Simpson (Peter Ustinov), is captured by the local cops and pressured to become a mole for the police. Featuring likable characters, clever gimmicks, and plenty of laughs, Topkapi is based on Eric Ambler's The Light of Day, a crime novel with a streak of dark humor. Ustinov earned an Oscar as the taxi driver and small-time hustler who is drafted to play a bigger part in the scheme, and the robbery features the then-novel idea of lowering a member of the team from above to avoid the traps and alarms of the heavily secured room—an idea reused in numerous films. Remastered with a fine transfer for DVD and its Blu-ray debut, this is recommended. (S. Axmaker)