kijii Why would anyone want to steal a priceless statue, the Cellini Venus, from a Paris art museum IF you had been the one to loan it to the museum in the first place? Therein lies the riddle that makes up the story of this movie. When you first look at the cast of this William Wyler movie, it looks like there are three—maybe four--Oscar winners. Well, that is true and not true: Audrey Hepburn and Hugh Griffith won performance Oscars, but Peter O'Toole and Charles Boyer—while receiving several nominations each —ended up with only Honorary Oscars. Once you have seen a few art heist movies, you know what pains that a museum or bank goes through to protect the priceless objet d'art in their possession. There all sorts of bells and whistles, secret codes, and infrared sensors around the art, not to mention the 24/7 personnel used to respond to this plethora of mechanical-electrical gimmicks.The fun of the movie is watching O'Toole help Hepburn try to steal the statue. This is a bit like watching an episode of the old Mission Impossible TV show.

Kirpianuscus not a comedy. not an brilliant example of ironic view about art market. or seductive love story with few memorable scenes. but a charming story about tricks, meetings, suspense and Audrey Hepburn in a fantastic role. and, maybe, useful revelation for discover Peter O 'Toole as great comedian. a film who challenges the viewer in many ways. this is the basic source of its charm. and the explanation for its success. because all is lovely, acid and touching. emotions, the statue, Hugh Griffith 's performance. and the clash between revelations and the tension of the work of impeccable fake thief are pieces for recreate the nostalgia. for a period, for a manner to make romantic films, for a lost form of innocent, wise, bitter and full of impressive sparkles movies.

mmallon4 William Wyler is one of my very favourite directors and this being his third last film of a forty year career is a testament to the phenomenal director he was. Wyler didn't direct many comedies, and with a comedy as perfect as How To Steal a Million that's a crying shame. In fact the last straight up comedy he directed was 31 years earlier with The Gay Deception and the Ernst Lubitsch inspired The Good Fairy. How To Steal a Million defiantly owes something to Ernst Lubitsch. The character's interactions have that Lubitsch touch while the European setting and the high society elegance are unmistakably Lubitsch. Speaking of elegance, does this movie have style! At the beginning of the film we see Audrey Hepburn driving an unusually small car, wearing sunglasses and all white apparel; setting the tone for one heck of an eye pleasing film.Since How to Steal a Million was made after the demise of Hollywood's production code and the character's we're routing for are essentially criminals it did surprise me that they didn't let the character's get away with their actions at the end of the film. Peter O'Toole (one of Hepburn's few age appropriate leading man) shows that he could be as suave and debonair as the likes of William Powell. I often say this with a lot of primarily dramatic actors; I wish he could have done more comedies. It can't be easy to ask the person whose house you were in the process of robbing to give you a lift home in a perfectly convincing manner. The robbery process itself makes want to shout "genius" at the screen. The manner in which the heist is pulled of is so inventive and suspenseful as all hell. This was the days before CCTV so their plan probably wouldn't work nowadays. How to Steal a Million is one of the rare comedies which is consistently funny from start to finish; almost without a laugh free minute.

charmadu First of all, full disclosure: I had a GIGUNDA crush on Peter O' Toole as a young girl, and this film catches him at a moment in his life when he not only looked crazy fabulous, but appears to be having the time of his life with this gossamer wing of a tale with... who else? The Queen of Gossamer Wing Tales herself, Audrey Hepburn. But above and beyond these two knockouts and the delightful chemistry they have together, and their wonderful cast (most notably Hugh Griffiths as Audrey's father), we have Paris, we have that enchanting musical title theme, we have that stunningly gorgeous house they live in, and those cars! Peter's citrine Jaguar XKE has to be the sexiest car that has ever been filmed. I don't even know what Audrey's car was but it is SO adorable and chic - whoever chose the cars should have been nominated for an Oscar for that alone. The script is clever, the Givenchy outfits are lovely, and Wiliam Wyler directs with such a light touch. Come visit the Paris of 1966 and watch Peter and Audrey fall in love!