The Burglars

The Burglars (Le Casse) (1971)

Runtime: 113 minutes

Directed by: Henri Verneuil

Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Omar Sharif, Dyan Cannon, Robert Hossein, Nicole Calfan

From: Columbia

A movie that thankfully lived up to my expectations once I learned some details. I don’t recall where first knowledge of this came from but this seemed to be right up my alley: a heist film starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Omar Sharif and Dyan Cannon where there’s one heck of a car chase choreographed by Remy Julienne, a Morricone score and there’s an exotic setting (Greece)-yes, please. the movie played on TCM earlier in the year and finally it was watched last night. There is also a copy on YouTube but you didn’t hear it from me… to clarify, bot that and what I saw were the English version of the movie; there’s also a French cut which I haven’t experienced before but know it’s a bit longer than this.

The first 20 minutes are the credits then an almost wordless stretch where the actual burglary takes place with quite a contraption that is used to pull it off—it would take too long to explain how the dog chased the cat that chased the rat, anyhow. Belmondo is the head burglar, while Sharif is the police officer looking for the stolen loot-although he does not belong in the “heroic cop” category. The titular burglars are cursed by fate and are stuck in Athens for a few days; indeed, there’s more than one or two confrontations between the two leads.

There’s a charming and at times lovely score from Morricone, eye-candy from Cannon, simply astounding 70’s décor (not the first time I’ve seen that in a 70’s or 80’s European film), Belmondo doing his own stunts that at times were buckwild (again, something I’ve experienced before; one day, we may see either Tom Cruise fall out the back of a dump truck or tumble down the side of a giant hill), the sort of retro crime thrills that are typically a hit with me, a bit of sleaze… the high marks I gave this were well-deserved. When there’s action, it satisfied those desires so the movie was a win.