Audrey Hepburn has the same style and grace regardless of what she's starring in, however in How to Steal a Million her performance seems a little rusty and not akin to what you are used to from her, maybe because this was her first role for two years since My Fair Lady and she was having a troubled personal life around the time.
Nevertheless How to Steal a Million is good old fashioned fun with a rather silly premise, what could have been a hardcore heist film has been toned down considerably and made overly family friendly, something that was a common occurrence at the time.
Peter O'Toole plays the part of Simon Dermott rather well even if the character is a tad too comical. The guy comes across as the lousiest thief in the world, and for somebody who's trying to steal a million dollar statue he doesn't seem to quite know what he's doing.
Some parts of the film came across as tongue-in-cheek, like when Nicole and Simon are hiding from the museum guards in that cupboard, the whole act seemed false to me, how did they successfully stay hidden in there when one of the guards only had to open the cupboard door and catch them?
The whole mise-en-scene seems outdated, for something that was released after the golden era had ended, this film literally stinks of golden era! Like it was one of the last hurrah's before Hollywood changed forever, this may have something to do with the director, William Wyler was one of the standard bearers for the golden era and maybe the guy had great difficulty changing his style he was so used to in order to keep up to date with the changing world.
Eli Wallach is a great reliable actor but I think he was greatly wasted in How to Steal a Million, his screen time was limited and his character was very two dimensional, playing the part of crooked art lover Davis Leland, the guy is interested in two things: expanding his art collection and falling in love with Nicole..., a fan of the works of Nicole's father Bonnet, he's very anxious to get his hands on the Cellini Venus that Simon and Nicole eventually steal.
A bit of a dull story that was made edible by the craziness that's vastly inserted into the film..., very divisive, you'll either love the film or not love the film, it's okay but doesn't strike me as particularly great, I've seen better and I've seen better from this era.
Nevertheless How to Steal a Million is good old fashioned fun with a rather silly premise, what could have been a hardcore heist film has been toned down considerably and made overly family friendly, something that was a common occurrence at the time.
Peter O'Toole plays the part of Simon Dermott rather well even if the character is a tad too comical. The guy comes across as the lousiest thief in the world, and for somebody who's trying to steal a million dollar statue he doesn't seem to quite know what he's doing.
Some parts of the film came across as tongue-in-cheek, like when Nicole and Simon are hiding from the museum guards in that cupboard, the whole act seemed false to me, how did they successfully stay hidden in there when one of the guards only had to open the cupboard door and catch them?
The whole mise-en-scene seems outdated, for something that was released after the golden era had ended, this film literally stinks of golden era! Like it was one of the last hurrah's before Hollywood changed forever, this may have something to do with the director, William Wyler was one of the standard bearers for the golden era and maybe the guy had great difficulty changing his style he was so used to in order to keep up to date with the changing world.
Eli Wallach is a great reliable actor but I think he was greatly wasted in How to Steal a Million, his screen time was limited and his character was very two dimensional, playing the part of crooked art lover Davis Leland, the guy is interested in two things: expanding his art collection and falling in love with Nicole..., a fan of the works of Nicole's father Bonnet, he's very anxious to get his hands on the Cellini Venus that Simon and Nicole eventually steal.
A bit of a dull story that was made edible by the craziness that's vastly inserted into the film..., very divisive, you'll either love the film or not love the film, it's okay but doesn't strike me as particularly great, I've seen better and I've seen better from this era.