How to Steal a Million
Description
The daughter (Audrey Hepburn) of a wealthy Frenchman (Hugh Griffith) who creates counterfeit art learns her father is in danger of being exposed as a crook. She decides to steal the family’s forged Cellini sculpture from a museum before experts can examine it and enlists a society burglar (Peter O’Toole) to help her.Amazon.com essential video
Audrey Hepburn was never more sleek and glamorous than in this delightful romantic caper costarring Peter O’Toole and directed by William Wyler. She’s the chic daughter of a renowned art collector and covert forger (the always eccentric Hugh Griffith) who’s deposited his best work, a famous statue, in a Paris museum. Trouble is, technology can now detect such forgery, so Hepburn plots to steal the statue with the help of O’Toole, an amateur thief and covert inspector. Of course, neither of them knows the whole truth about the other. They make an utterly charming couple, with O’Toole stealing the show in an uncharacteristically lighthearted turn. –Bill Desowitz
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O’Toole and Hepburn mug and strut and read lines. Hugh Griffith is poorly cast. The script is extremely long, unbelievable, and speckled only here and there with wit. And, boy, is it light in that tiny closet where our stars are mugging and reading their lines.
Wholly artificial and unamusing, this is one of the least of the 1966 films.
Rating: 2 / 5
How to Steal a Million
I thought I purchased a VHS, but was sent a DVD. It was a gift, I don’t know if it has been viewed yet. I was excited that they offer classic movies and about how soon I could receive it. Thank you.
Rating: 4 / 5
How to Steal a Million
This is a pleasant enough romantic comedy, and Audrey is as fine as ever. Watch it, if you do, for the comedy and the romance, because as a caper it’s a dud. The museum guards are too stupid (and comically played) to present a real challenge to our heroes.
The movie especially suffers in comparison to the underrated Gambit (1966), another romantic comedy/caper released to cinemas just six months later; Gambit has all the cunning plans, twists, and above all the sense of danger and challenge that a caper film needs and which How to Steal a Million lacks.
Rating: 3 / 5
How to Steal a Million
It must have seemed like a good idea at the time and “How To Steal A Million” is not really a bad movie - it’s just not as good as it might have been.
Probably intended as a follow-up to Audrey Hepburn’s fun romp “Charade” - which shares this film’s Parisian setting - “How To…” is doomed to suffer by comparison. To start with, director William Wyler, at the end of a long career, lacks the light touch of “Charade’s” Stanley Donen. And, surprisingly good though he is, Peter O’Toole is no Cary Grant. But then the script is not a great help either.
Briefly, the plot revolves around Hepburn - as the daughter of an unrepentant art forger - and her need to “steal” a sculpture Papa has lent to a museum - before tests can prove it’s a fake. She enlists the help of suave, overly confident O’Toole who she believes to be an upper class art thief. In reality, he is an art forgery expert on the trail of Papa. Together, the mismatched pair carry out a moderately complicated and inventive heist of the statue. Of course, love rears its inevitable head along the way.
One of the film’s problems is its big budget. Everything is bright and glossy and shiny and brand new. Designer clothes look like they were put on the moment before the camera started to roll. Makeup is always perfect and hair is never out of place. Such lavish production values look wonderful in a musical but tend to slow down or even overwhelm a comedy. Even the music is too much. Where a frothy Mancini concoction was required, there is John Williams instead. His score was terrible in the sixties - it sounds even worse now.
But there is still much to enjoy in the film - most of it provided by the chemistry between Hepburn and O’Toole. For once, Audrey’s waif-like personality actually suits her role and she even seems to have a laugh or two at her own image. O’Toole demonstrates what a versatile actor he could be, tossing off quips and varying reactions like a comic pro. It’s too bad he didn’t do more comedies as he always seemed to enjoy them. Equally good fun is Hugh Griffith as yet another irasible old codger. But Charles Boyer is virtually wasted (he has one good line: “I know it’s a Van Gogh, but who painted it?”) while Eli Wallach’s twitchy performance is downright embarrassing.
Films like this used to roll off the assembly line back in the sixties and there were certainly many that were a lot worse than this one. Fans of Hepburn and O’Toole will like - if not love - it. And viewers unencumbered by great expectations will probably have a good time as well. If nothing else, as Rick said to Ilsa: we’ll always have Paris.
Rating: 3 / 5
How to Steal a Million
This is my most favorite movie from Audrey.
Peter O’Toole’s blue eye is beuty enough to compare with
Audrey’s, yet, nobody would watch this movie for his name,
I suppose. I was charmed by his humor, not by his appearances.
This movie is also a good lesson to know the capital state of
Paris.
Rating: 5 / 5
How to Steal a Million