How To Steal A Million – Audrey Hepburn In A Heist Drama
A heist movie made in 1966, I was not sure it was a very good idea. But I watched it only for Audrey Hepburn, she is so beautiful and fabulous, I just adore her. The movie was set in Paris and was a romantic comedy laced with the heist drama which forms the crux of the movie. It was a very well made movie for 1966, the romantic lines were very good, as were the comic sequences.
Audrey Hepburn was wonderful in the movie, playing Nicole Bonnet, daughter of an artist who indulges in creating fake paintings and sculptures. Charles Bonnet is the artist in question, who not only makes fake art work but also auctions it for huge amount of money which only the rich and wealthy can afford. Nicole makes efforts to convince her dad to go no further in this, as its fraught with danger.
While Charles is away on one such auction night, an intruder gains entry into their palatial house and is found inspecting a von Gogh fake painting. Nicole holds out a gun to warn him against making any further move or attempting to steal the painting. While they are still in a verbal duel, the gun misfires and the bullet brushes past the intruder thereby injuring him. While Nicole attends to his bleeding arm he introduces himself as Simon Dermott. He is suave, handsome and charming; and he charms Nicole into dropping him at Hotel Ritz where he has been staying.
In the meantime Charles agrees to lend a sculpture named Cellini Venus to be displayed in a museum. The fake sculpture, priced at a million dollar, makes it to the museum and is put under strict security. When the curator of the museum explained the security measure, I was taken aback. The sculpture is placed in the center of the museum and there are blue beams around it which emit infra-red rays and the circuit gets completed when the rays reach the bottom vessel. If any object comes between this, meaning someone tries to put forward their hand to even touch the sculpture, the circuit will break and alarms will ring. So, here’s the germ of the idea that’s been copied in so many of our movies like Jugnu and more recently in Bade Miyan Chote Miyan.
When Nicole goes visiting the museum, she runs into Simon again. And Simon is totally smitten by her and invites her for drink, but Nicole is not interested. I felt the movie was dragging a bit because the romance was given way too much screen-time. So, when, how and why does the heist drama happen?
Here’s the twist that brings us to the real drama. The sculpture has to be brought back to Charles house from the museum and for that he has to sign an insurance which will cover the cost in case of any natural disaster at the time of transportation. But the catch is that, the sculpture will have to undergo chemical and x-ray test for technical reasons. After having signed the insurance document Charles realizes what a folly he has committed. He is scared that the test may expose the age of the sculpture, thereby revealing that its a fake.
When Nicole learns of this she decides that the only way to prevent the chemical/x-ray tests is to steal the sculpture. But how would she do it amidst such tight security? She thinks of Simon and calls upon him to help her. Will they succeed in stealing the painting? Will the heist be pulled-off without any hiccups or will the plan be foiled?
As mentioned before, the movie is a rom-com and there are regular doses of humor. Charles Bonnet as the fake artist comes up with really funny one-liners, like, when he says that van Gogh sold just one painting in his lifetime, while Charles has sold 2 fake masterpiece paintings. The scenes between Nicole and Simon are filled with confusion, humor and love; even the plot to steal is done comically and not in a technical way. Its more like pulling a fast one on the cops and security team by deception. In between all this, Nicole gets engaged to an American tycoon named Davis Leland, who comes close to Nicole so that he can obtain the sculpture.
Finally, coming to the starcast, Audrey Hepburn was fantastic in the movie. She was as beautiful as ever, and her effortless acting was marvellous. The movie was directed very well by William Wyler. I had not heard of him at all before this movie. Later I learned that he has been nominated for a record 12 Oscars as Best Director and won 3 of them, Ben-Hur and Roman Holiday being some of the prestigious works in his filmography. And every bit of his talent showed in this movie. Simon Dermott was played gracefully by Peter O’Toole, another talented actor who has been nominated for 8 Oscars as Best Actor. His charm and the warmth of his blue eyes is enough to set any woman on fire. Now, I have to get hold of other movies by William Wyler and Peter O’Toole, watch them. As far as Audrey is concerned, I have already lined-up Charade, a movie which co-stars Cary Grant.
Tags: audrey hepburn, how to steal a million, peter o'toole, william wyler
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Considering how lame some of the plots are these days, heist, noir, horror of those days are a much better watch.
Will try to catch this. Thanks for the reco.
If you’re about to embark on a romp through the movies of Audrey Hepburn, I envy you, and I hope you include Paris When It Sizzles in your research. I think it’s possibly underrated or something, and one of the joys of it is that it’s about scriptwriting – Audrey gets a job in Paris with a guy who’s drinking instead of writing his filmscript, and there are many hilarious scenes in which different inane possibilities are talked out and dramatized. Writers love it and it – movie – is kind of a primer on the Hollywood potboiler.
I also, like you, recently discovered How To Steal A Million, and also loved it — in my case, for the casting of Peter O’Toole as a suave, 100% cool, bantering Englishman of a type usually played by Cary Grant. And – now that you mention it – it really is Jewel Thief-ish, isn’t it!!
@Virginia: i m not embarking on any such romp, its just that i got hold of a few such movies. and after watching movies, i do tend to write about it and spread the word.
.
its not a research either, just the love for cinema and audrey hepburn
.
will try to get hold of ‘paris when it sizzles’; thanx for the recco. as and when i watch it, will put a write-up too…keep watching this space
.
yes, peter o’toole was gr8 in the movie. he complimented audrey very well.
@ravptor: yes dude, u r right. this movie is much better than the current day movies. even when it comes to heist movies, all we can make is ‘race’ which was so pathetic :(
Audrey Hepburn movies are like dope to me.. you ll have a one helluva trip after watching her movies. She is so charismatic and enchanting. Probably the most natural beauty ever to have acted. She has these great abilities to lift the an ordinary movie to great heights just by her presence. Such was the effect of her in me a rather lazy fellow when it comes to writing ended up writing a post on her.
http://kpv-balaji.blogspot.com/2009/04/oh-audrey.html
Once you watch one movies of hers, you ll be surely tempted to check some more of hers and you will end mesmerized by her screen presence.
How to steal a million saw her pairing with peter O’toole and they made such a great looking pair. They have great chemistry especially in the scenes involving the closet and their first encounter at audreys house are examples of that. It is very light hearted heist movie with humor sprinkled all over. Hugh griffith as audreys father is simply brilliant.
@KPVBalaji: read your blog on audrey, its nice.
i shall do a feature on her some day, let me first write about a few more movies of hers … then i can sum things up a little better
@rals
i am not even decent when it comes to writing.. it was just a vague bunch of thoughts.. would love to read on audrey hepburn from some one like you..i dont comment as often in pfc..but i have been reading it for the past one year..and i know how well you write… so get hold of more audrey movies and write one soon !!
KPVBalaji: [i am not even decent when it comes to writing.. it was just a vague bunch of thoughts] … dont say that. thought itself is the beginning. once u have the thought, just refine the words. it takes time to write, so give it some time
.
i dont write all that well, believe me. i m still learning and refining myself, its a continuous process
.
plz comment often, dont be a silent reader. in fact, i would suggest that whenever u write about a movie/celebrity then please submit your article to projekt_iview on pfc. i m sure it will be published on pfc main, if editors approve of it. but at least make an attempt.
@rals
Thanks for those encouraging words