How to Steal a Million (1966)

Romantic comedy about a woman who must steal a statue from a Paris museum to help conceal her father's art forgeries, and the man who helps her.

Director:

William Wyler

Writers:

George Bradshaw (based on a story by), Harry Kurnitz (screenplay)

Stars:

Audrey Hepburn, Peter O'Toole, Eli Wallach

1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Audrey Hepburn	...	Nicole Bonnet
Peter O'Toole	...	Simon Dermott
Eli Wallach	...	Davis Leland
Hugh Griffith	...	Charles Bonnet
Charles Boyer	...	DeSolnay
Fernand Gravey	...	Grammont
Marcel Dalio	...	Senor Paravideo
Jacques Marin	...	Chief Guard
Moustache	...	Guard
Roger Tréville	...	Auctioneer (as Roger Treville)
Edward Malin	...	Insurance Clerk (as Eddie Malin)
Bert Bertram	...	Marcel

Storyline

In Paris, wealthy Charles Bonnet is well known in the art world as a collector of rare pieces, mostly of the impressionist masters. He will on occasion sell paintings from his collection at auction. In reality, he is an art forger, he only reproducing those pieces known to have gone missing. His daughter, Nicole Bonnet, wants him to stop this business fearing that some day soon he will get caught. She is most concerned about he loaning out his Cellini Venus statue to the Kléber-Lafayette Museum, as she knows that technology can now test for things such as material age which would prove that the statue and by association he is a fraud. He ends up causing a problem for himself when he signs a $1 million insurance policy for the statue for the museum, which unwittingly allows them to test the piece for its authenticity. To save her father from jail, Nicole feels the only thing she can do is try to steal the statue from the gallery which may not be the easiest thing to do especially as ...

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Plot Keywords:

museum | burglar | police | insurance | forgery | 

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Taglines:

S-S-S-H-H-H-H-H - Meet a couple of smart operators who give a lesson in love and larceny

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

19 August 1966 (UK)

Also Known As:

William Wyler's How to Steal a Million

Filming Locations:

Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France

Box Office

Budget:

$6,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

World Wide Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

123 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Color by Deluxe)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Audrey Hepburn and Jacques Marin also appeared together in Charade (1963).

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Goofs

When Simon replaced the Venus with the wine bottle he placed the bottle near the edge of the green plinth but when the guard is pointing at the bottle it is in the center of the plinth.

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Quotes

Nicole Bonnet: [having just driven Simon home] Now how do I get home?
Simon Dermott: You see, you never can tell when you might need a friend.

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Connections

Referenced in Uncle Daddy: How to Steal an Idea (2013)

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Soundtracks

La Marseillaise
(1792) (uncredited)
Written by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle
In the score when the statue is transported to the museum

User Reviews

slight story of art stealers

This movie could have been more fun that it is, but I still liked it - Audrey Hepburn, swathed in the height of chic as usual, tries to save her art forger father (the incomparable Hugh Griffith) from exposure as a fake, by stealing a statue of Venus carved by her grandfather for an art exhibition. To help her in this she enlists the help of a society burglar (the young and impossibly blue-eyed Peter O'Toole) and in the course of all this, they fall in love.

It's predictable but enjoyable to watch (and it helps that the two stars are extremely easy on the eye), but with few surprises and some slow moments, it isn't up to William Wyler's better efforts. Really just a one-dimensional story of the 1960s beautiful people, like so many other movies of its time.