Topkapi

A heist comedy set in Istanbul. Elizabeth wants a dagger from the Topkapi Palace, for the emeralds in its hilt. She puts together a team with her former lover Walter. The rule is that nobody on the team may be a professional criminal, because professionals have files. An acrobat, a technician and a deaf inventor join. The man they find to drive the car across the border is Arthur Simpson: a small-time crook, clever enough to know the limits of his own cleverness. Simpson is caught at the border and the Turkish authorities put him back inside the team as an informer. So through the whole robbery he works for both sides and is afraid of both. The robbery itself is in the last section: they have to cross the palace on a rope from the roof without touching the floor, because the floor is alarmed. That sequence set a pattern later spy films and series have used again and again. The source is Eric Ambler's novel The Light of Day. Most of the filming was done in Istanbul. Melina Mercouri, Peter Ustinov, Maximilian Schell and Robert Morley star. Ustinov won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the part; it was his second in that category. Jules Dassin directed. An enjoyable production for anyone who likes heist films and the colourful comedies of the 1960s. Before you watch, know this: the pace is slow by current standards and the humour belongs to its period.