It's a lot of fun and it's suspenseful as well, if you haven't seen it before. The acting is sometimes outrageously hammy but it fits neatly into the general atmosphere, which is almost always excessive -- the music, the performances, the flamboyant tourist attractions, the stunts, the jokes, the impossible caper itself.
The caper is, well, if not impossible, highly improbable because it involves the most intricate planning and is pulled off without practice and without a flaw. If you or I were to try it, scampering across the sky-high domes of museums in Istanbul, pulling ropes a predetermined number of millimeters, coordinating the escape plans, the first thing we'd do is fall off the roof and die.
Maximilian Schell is the brains behind the burglary, an excellent actor who doesn't have much to do except show his mile-wide grin. Melina Mercouri is his girl friend who is treated as a semi-maniacal nymphomaniac, kind of unconvincingly, although she has a neatly assembled, lanky, supple figure. Her cracked, throaty voice sounds cured by years of smoking Papastratos. Peter Ustinov, the "schmo" who is inducted into the gang, provides most of the humor and he's very effective, especially in his dealings with the crazy, drunken cook played by Akim Tamirov. Tamirov, intoxicated and mangling his English, whispers hoarsely to Ustinov that he is here to identify Russian spies. "You mean -- are you here, umm, officially?" "Fishily? NO, NO, not fishily, I give you good MEAT. No FISHILY." And Tamirov brandishes a hideous wrinkled smoked fish under Ustinov's nose.
The general impression is that the cast and crew had a good time, and the viewer probably will too.
The caper is, well, if not impossible, highly improbable because it involves the most intricate planning and is pulled off without practice and without a flaw. If you or I were to try it, scampering across the sky-high domes of museums in Istanbul, pulling ropes a predetermined number of millimeters, coordinating the escape plans, the first thing we'd do is fall off the roof and die.
Maximilian Schell is the brains behind the burglary, an excellent actor who doesn't have much to do except show his mile-wide grin. Melina Mercouri is his girl friend who is treated as a semi-maniacal nymphomaniac, kind of unconvincingly, although she has a neatly assembled, lanky, supple figure. Her cracked, throaty voice sounds cured by years of smoking Papastratos. Peter Ustinov, the "schmo" who is inducted into the gang, provides most of the humor and he's very effective, especially in his dealings with the crazy, drunken cook played by Akim Tamirov. Tamirov, intoxicated and mangling his English, whispers hoarsely to Ustinov that he is here to identify Russian spies. "You mean -- are you here, umm, officially?" "Fishily? NO, NO, not fishily, I give you good MEAT. No FISHILY." And Tamirov brandishes a hideous wrinkled smoked fish under Ustinov's nose.
The general impression is that the cast and crew had a good time, and the viewer probably will too.