How to Steal a Million (1966) - Wyler and stars win with Paris-set cinematic cream puff

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Amoral behavior, sexy stars and stylish fun allure on this poster for William Wyler's How to Steal a Million

The daughter of a major art counterfeiter in Paris worries incessantly about his practices, and when a fake Venus sculpture gets donated to an art museum, where it will undergo technical scrutiny, she joins forces with a burglar to lift the fake from the museum.

How to Steal a Million is written by Harry Kurnitz (Goodbye Charlie (1964)), based on the short story Venus Rising by George Bradshaw from his anthology Practice to Deceive (1962), and directed by German-born American master filmmaker, William Wyler (Lazy Lightning (1926)), whose 43th feature it was.

Many clear colors and smart, funny lines speak in favor of this enthusiastic swindler romcom, which also runs on its star duo, who most will naturally be inclined to want to follow to see what they're up to: Audrey Hepburn (Sabrina (1954)) and Peter O'Toole (Kidnapped (1959)) look bloody good together and have a bubbly chemistry to boot.

Wyler seems to have taken a pleasurable European recess here with How to Steal a Million, a film with a liberating aloofness to the fashions and trends of the 1960s. With a neat score by John Williams (Stepmom (1998)), and Hugh Griffiths (Gone to Earth (1950)) funny as the grand forger father. How to Steal a Million is a successful, sweet and sparkly, entertaining soufflé. (Although the title is somewhat misleading.)

 

Related posts:

William Wyler: Top 10: Best epic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Ben-Hur (1959) - Perhaps the greatest epic film of all time
The Big Country (1958) - A big western gift  

The Desperate Hours (1955) - Wyler's top-drawer true-crime home-invasion thriller 

Top 10: The best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Top 10: The best adventure films reviewed by Film Excess to date 
Roman Holiday (1953) - Wyler takes us to marvelous Rome on an unforgettable romantic adventure 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 6.4 mil. $

Box office: Reportedly 10.45 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.63 times its cost)

[How to Steal a Million premiered 13 July (Los Angeles) and runs 123 minutes. Hepburn was paid 750k $ for her performance in the film. Shooting took place from July - September in France, including in Paris. The film reportedly made 4.4 mil. $ in North-American rentals and 10.45 worldwide, according to Fox records, which list that its break-even point would have been 12 mil. $. Wyler returned with Funny Girl (1968). Hepburn returned in Two for the Road (1967); O'Toole in The Bible: In the Beginning ... (1966). How to Steal a Million is fresh at 100 % with a 7.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of How to Steal a Million?

Phantoms (1998) or, Trouble in Colorado!

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A mysterious flash at night attracts the prospective audience member's curiosity on this poster for Joe Chapelle's Phantoms

Shortly after the arrival of two sisters to a small Colorado town, a ghost chaos descends over it: Lights flicker, alarms go off for no apparent reason, and people are found dead. Along with some policemen and a superstitious doctor, the sisters now fight against 'it'.

 

Phantoms is written by Dean R. Koontz (Odd Thomas (2013, novel)), based on his own same-titled 1983 novel, and directed by Joe Chappelle (Thieves Quartet (1993)).

Koontz' novel may be worth reading (or not), but this sci-fi horror film isn't scary, which is its main problem. Liev Schreiber (Mental (2012)) and Rose McGowan (The Black Dahlia (2006)) add quality, while Ben Affleck (Field of Dreams (1989)) doesn't seem credible as the sheriff, and Peter O'Toole (King Ralph (1991)) is also here - but you can't but wonder why.

 

Related post:

 

1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: 5.6 mil. $ (North America only)

= Uncertain - but likely a huge flop

[Phantoms was released 23 January (USA) and runs 91 minutes. Shooting took place from October - December 1996 in Colorado. It opened #9 to a 3 mil. $ first weekend in North America. If made on a realistic 10 mil. $ budget, and with a projected total world gross of 9 mil. $, the film would rank as a huge flop with a return of 0.9 times its cost. Chappelle returned with Takedown (2000). Affleck returned in Armageddon (1998); McGowan in Devil in the Flesh (1998, video) and theatrically in Southie (1998). Phantoms is rotten at 13 % with a 4.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Phantoms?

Caligula (1979) - Depravity galore in the Penthouse-produced Roman emperor biopic

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An alluring, brooding poster for Tinto Brass's Caligula

QUICK REVIEW:

The subject of the film: Caligula, who was a Roman emperor approximately 100 years A.C., as well as a sex-crazed maniac.
The film in itself is only worth 3 ♥'s, however, the place it has carved out for itself in film history, (along with the not irrelevant fact that it didn't spin an intolerable avalanche of accompanying epic, swords-and-sandal-art-porns in its vein), contributes to Caligula's growth beyond its own potential.
In a way it is refreshing to see an epic costume drama like this that suddenly both entails fisting and cumshots, and yet still ... Caligula, produced by Penthouse magazine, (it's only film to date), is a complete 70's freak-show.
The ending SPOILER with the appointment of the new emperor and the mooing-scene are spot-on, and the execution-scene impresses, but the film is generally wildly stagy, uncinematic and technically poor.
It was directed by Italian Tinto Brass (Salon Kitty (1976)) with additional footage, - more accurately all of the pornographic material in the film (spurting cocks etc.), - directed by the film's producer Bob Guccione (Lowball (1996)), who insterted the footage against Brass's wishes. The film is based on a script by Gore Vidal (Myra Breckinridge (1970)), which had way too many homosexual sex scenes in it (to suit the Penthouse taste) and was therefore rewritten by Brass. Both Brass and Vidal later disowned the film, which became a success fueled by the free press it got from the courts around America that actually (sensationally) tried to ban the film, but without luck; it was repeatedly deemed 'not obscene'. - It was, however, banned in Australia, where the uncut version has been banned at least into 2011!
That is the version this review is based on, which runs 156 minutes.

Watch an original trailer here

Cost: 17.5 mil. $
Box office: 23 mil. $
= Minor hit

What do you think of Caligula?