Topkapi (1964)

Kaleidoscopic, spinning wheels, Éntekhno (orchestral Greek folk) music, "It can be done; it can be done!" Peter Ustinov, small time crook caught up in a big-time caper. Are you strong enough? Pull the loveseat toward you with the rope. Try not to think of Melina Mercouri,…

threepenny

This movie is still a blast.  Mr. Ustinov is hilarious.  Oceans steals a lot more from Topkapi than from the original Oceans.  The Kino blu looks great too.

carrieandtracy

Energy is everything. Whenever I watch a film like Topkapi I am expectantly waiting for it to take over my reality and immerse me in this other, carefree reality we need to go to sometimes. This usually only works when the film carries with it the kind of energy that…

DirkH

“You a foreigner?” “Oh, no, I’m English.” I like heist/caper films. Jules Dassin’s Topkapi is such a film, so I like it for the most part. The best aspects of the film are the buildup to the robbery of a bejeweled knife from Istanbul’s Topkapi Museum and the robbery…

noir1946

A fun little caper film with Peter Ustinov and Robert Morley. This is Ustinov's film. He was slated to play Inspector Jacques Clouseau, and I can see why from this. It's not outrageous, but it is funny even though some scenes seem to go on much too long. And Robert…

RetroHound

The main point of reference for Topkapi always seems to be its director Jules Dassin’s earlier heist film Rafifi. That’s understandable. Rififi is a defining film of its subgenre, so seeing how Dassin varies his approach to similar material is inherently interesting,…

Quiller

Director Jules Dassin was ridden out of Hollywood in 1949 on charges he was a Communist. The ‘red’ tag, applied because of his anti-fascist politics, was enough to end his employability in US studio projects. His last studio work, made in London through the engineering of…

Wes Edwards

This movie has everything: psychedelic montages, oiled-up Turkish wrestlers, nymphomaniacs, emerald heists, belly dancers, lonely lighthouse keepers, mute acrobatics, mechanical parrots, and Robert Morley’s eyebrows. Not to mention the DNA of Ocean's Eleven and the…

Seesty

Having watched and enjoyed director Jules Dassin's previous anally-retentive and super-methodical heist film "Rififi", and curious to see what kind of performance earned Peter Ustinov his second Best Supporting Actor nom after "Spartacus", I decided to check this out.…

mrbalihai