Scanialara
You won't be disappointed!
TrueJoshNight
Truly Dreadful Film
Maidexpl
Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast
mmallon4
Topkapi is one of those movies in which it is fun to look in the background at the colourful array of gadgets and gizmos. The film's sets are a thing of beauty, full of beautiful, understated colours. This is the kind of movie to watch to watch on a hot summer's day, or to escape the winter blues. The movie was filmed on location and acts like a time capsules for 1960's Turkey and Greece, and capturing in a documentary like for the nitty, gritty street corners of Istanbul.The production code was all but gone in 1964, thus the movie is able to explain and able to show in detail how they are able to commit their crime with explanations of the security system in place and how to bypass them, as well as their undercover scheme and the heist plan; I just delight in that kind of exposition. There were the days before security cameras, therefore they aren't an obstacle to get around. I also imagine they probably could have chosen to have the criminals get away scot free if they had desired. Peter Ustinov steals the show, in one of those performances which brings me levels of respect towards an actor playing a lovable sucker and the most unconvincing conman who can't fool anyone to save his life. Oh the other hand I've heard reviewers criticise the casting of a 44 year old Melina Mercouri as a flirt who is not very attractive, I disagree. I find it's an interesting character dynamic to have a somewhat maniacal nymphomaniac who isn't particularly attractive yet has a lover who appears to legitimately sees something in her.Topkapi may have the best heist sequence I've seen in a film. By this point in the film I've already attached a strong emotional interest in these characters, but during the heist itself the characters played by Ustinov and Maximillian Schell develop an unexpected emotional bond which raises the stakes higher than they are. With a clumsy fool who is afraid of heights, a lighthouse being controlled from afar by other operatives and precise rope movements to moving an entire glass enclosure, I'm left with that glorious feeling of clenching your hands when something almost goes wrong.
lasttimeisaw
My second Jules Dassin's film after NIGHT AND THE CITY (1950, 7/10), and out of my expectation it's an exotic Turkish heist adventurer with a blithe tone and meticulous detail- solidification with regard to the theft action.The film starts with a tawdry but foxy Melina Mercouri (Dassin's muse and future wife) enigmatically introducing her craving to steal the most precious jewelled dagger from Topkapi museum, her kitschy costume and the settings are antiquated enough to divert the film into a burlesque frivolousness, but when her entire team assembles (including the male-counterpart mastermind Maximilian Schell), with an additional interlope, a small-con "schmo" (the Oscar- winning Peter Ustinov), the film regains its vigour and flair in its strongest form to manoeuvre a seamless treasure-replacement theft, benchmarks an exemplar of its genre which haven't been overshadowed since then, the escape strategy during a Turkish old-wrestling (Kırkpınar) pageantry is no less pleasant to watch against the trickery's predictability, and far more thrilling is the actual stunts which thoroughly generate a gravitating magnetism on the screen lest as little as one needle's dropping would scupper the plan. But the pathos-bathos irrefutably comes in the end, in the public media, where no one should dare wrote an ode to theft, no matter how benevolent those convicts are in person, thus the finale has to be a received compromise which still is in line with the filmic light-hearted air. Ustinov, is so congenital and always oozes a screen-friendly affability and warmth in his presence, whose second Oscar win of a borderline supporting role is well-earned by lifting the entertainment-heavy film onto a stratum of character-engaging experience. An appearance combo of Debra Messing and Anne Bancroft, the nymphomaniac Melina Mercouri stands still as the shallow and narrow-written role of an anti-femme fatale brain, and a gorgeous Maximilian Schell is shamefully eclipsed by his chubby sidekick, whose circumscribed performance nevertheless at least arouse my curiosity to delve into his filmography a bit deeper.
wes-connors
For over an hour, "Topkapi" is little more than colorful location footage, nicely presented by director Jules Dassin. You have the assembling of the "heist" team, led by brassy blonde Melina Mercouri (as Elizabeth Lipp). The main recruitment is hapless Peter Ustinov (as Arthur Simpson). He won an "Academy Award" as "Best Supporting Actor" for the year, but both the end credits and screen time agree Mr. Ustinov is the film's leading actor. Probably, they didn't consider Ustinov or his role the "leading man" type... After much ado, we come to the actual robbery - of an jeweled dagger from the "Topkapi" museum. This is the part you should not miss. The robbery - starring Ustinov, Maximilian Schell (as William Walter) and "human fly" gymnast Gilles Ségal (as Giulio) - is excellent.******** Topkapi (9/2/64) Jules Dassin ~ Melina Mercouri, Peter Ustinov, Maximilian Schell, Gilles Segal
Film_critic_Lalit_Rao
We all know that a film can look good on paper as long as there are film fans who have not seen it.It is only by watching a particular film that a film fan is in a position to decide whether it is a masterpiece or a terrible piece of entertainment ? "Topkapi" is known as a brilliant heist film but film critic Lalit Rao could not really get to appreciate it as this film's lead players choose to spend their time in pursuing other pleasure activities instead of concentrating on their heist plans.It is due to this and other plot related inconsistencies that Topkapi can be considered as an absolutely weak effort by maestro of heist film genre Monsieur Jules Dassin.He is known to have made better films where action spoke louder than words. While watching "Topkapi",one can surely notice that there are too many nice views of Turkey.It is not known whether it was all intentionally relevant or director Jules Dassin wanted to achieve a kind of exotic nirvana in order to find spiritual enlightenment in Istanbul.It is due to these reasons that there are moments in this film where it appears as if it is nothing but a glamorous propaganda film made for Turkish government with a sole objective of giving a boost to local tourism industry.It is only for 20 minutes of its heist sequence that "Topkapi" is able to cement interest in viewers' minds.Alas,by that time viewers must surely have made up their mind to stop paying any attention to what is happening with the film.
