Cinema: Million-Dollar Heist

Once a Thief spends much too much time establishing the sexual compatibility of its two stars: Frenchman Alain Delon, who rates as a kind of male Bardot, and Hollywood’s Ann-Margret (Bus Riley’s Back in Town), who proves once again that it was good looks, not good acting, that made her the outstanding young box-office attraction of 1963-64.”

As soon as the lengthy love scenes are out of the way, the story gets clicking. Alain is a nice young ex-con trying to straighten out with the help of Wife Ann-Margret but with no help at all from his gangster brother. First thing anybody knows, there is poor Alain wrapped up in a plot to heist a million dollars’ worth of platinum wire. Double and triple crosses pop in and out as if run through a revolving door, and thriller fans will find a plenitude of such ritual sounds as the squeal of tires, the chunk of a silenced gun and the rat-a-tat of sound-track percussion to activate their endocrines.

It is all good, dirty, if not particularly original fun. Skull-faced Jack Palance comes off as one of the most improbable-looking masterminds in the annals of crime, and Van Heflin is solid as the vengeful detective who turns out to have heart. But Thiefs best value is in the minor roles: John Davis Chandler, an ash-blond menace with a voice like a stripped gear, who seems to have difficulty getting his plum-size eyes open; Zekial Marko (who also wrote both the book and screenplay) an engaging loser who would obviously do anything to anybody; Tammy Locke a fearsome moppet, capable of a look of existential bafflement when her father won’t let her dry the dishes—and of cheerful chuckles when Daddy and his friends end up on the dock all covered with blood.