This film involves a collection of rogues who set out to steal a fabulous jewel encrusted dagger from an Istanbul museum, protected by an "Indiana Jones" style nest of security features and traps, not knowing they are being watched by Turkish undercover agents mistakenly believing them to be terrorists.
Filmed on location in Turkey and Paris, this film is a droll sparkling delight, a skillful blending of humor and suspense, with a touch of the exotic, making, at times, magnificent use of Istanbul for its scenic backdrop. Unlike the same director's most famous heist film, the legendary Rififi, Topkapi is light hearted in tone, but its big heist sequence is genuinely ingenious and suspenseful.
Aside from the film's physical attractiveness with its color photography, much of its appeal lies with its cast of players, headed by Maximilian Schell as the mastermind behind the robbery, Melina Mercouri, Robert Morley, a spectacularly bizarre and slovenly Akim Tamiroff and, above all, Peter Ustinov as a small time hustler who becomes involved in the scheme. Ustinov's delightfully bumbling everyman (called a "schmo" by Schell when first spotting him) won him his second Academy Award as best supporting actor.
Filmed on location in Turkey and Paris, this film is a droll sparkling delight, a skillful blending of humor and suspense, with a touch of the exotic, making, at times, magnificent use of Istanbul for its scenic backdrop. Unlike the same director's most famous heist film, the legendary Rififi, Topkapi is light hearted in tone, but its big heist sequence is genuinely ingenious and suspenseful.
Aside from the film's physical attractiveness with its color photography, much of its appeal lies with its cast of players, headed by Maximilian Schell as the mastermind behind the robbery, Melina Mercouri, Robert Morley, a spectacularly bizarre and slovenly Akim Tamiroff and, above all, Peter Ustinov as a small time hustler who becomes involved in the scheme. Ustinov's delightfully bumbling everyman (called a "schmo" by Schell when first spotting him) won him his second Academy Award as best supporting actor.