Ein achtbarer Mann

This West German/Italian production seems to capture the pneuma of that most down-beat of hippy years - 1972 so well with its green/grey tones. Vigorous, steely-eyed, cleft-chinned American star Kirk Douglas is in good shape at 55-years-of-age and is professionally excellent. He plays a recently released convict and safecracker, Steve Wallace who is contracted to do one more job on a Hamburg bank which would set him up for life. Vis-a-vis the props used by the Italian set decorator, Francesco Bronzi in the art direction it would seem that he had an eye on the future. Bronzi was the set decorator in the adventure film, ''Burn!'' (1968-1971) starring Marlon Brando. Also, the apparatus and technology used by Wallace and Marco to practise the heist, including a silver triangle, frequency oscillators, sound effects and pulleys give the impression of a cutting-edge physics lesson early-'70s style with a touch of psychedelism, while the impressive sophisticated bank vault itself (''Big Ben'') includes a huge circular steel structure, shimmering chrome and steel panels and a circular steel safe which emerges from the floor to conjure a frozen timeless aspect ca. 1972 which was also the year that Charlton Heston's Antony & Cleopatra, The Darwin Adventure (starring young handsome English actor, Nicholas Clay) and Pocket Money (starring Paul Newman and Lee Marvin) were released. The film evocatively ends in a Hamburg coal-dump located near the docks which evokes the industry of Hamburg at the time. Young cherubic Italian actor, Giuliano Gemma - he of the auburn-hair, hazel eyes and chiseled features is impressive as Wallace's protege - he looks like he is enjoying himself in the company of top-most American star, Douglas. Released in UK cinemas on May 13 1973 and with evocative experimental electronic score possibly by Ennio Morricone.

If you love those 70's films, this has it all. The cars, the clothes, the "modern" machinery that is hokey today, and camera angles, etc. The best part of the film is one of the best car chases on film (perhaps top 10 best ever, really !), with no CGI, quick cutaways, etc., worth watching for this alone. The rest of the heist is pretty standard, but decent, with a complicated ending of course (it never just ends clean in these movies now, does it?). The movie takes place in Germany, although of course all of the text is in English, as if people in Germany speak English as a matter of course in their daily lives. It does not matter though, Hamburg is portrayed as gritty, again, that 70's gritty that we all miss and love to see in films.

I didn't think this one sounded all that great, what with it being a Euro-crime film with a PG rating, but I was wrong. The Master Touch might not be as deliriously violent as, well, Violent Naples or Contraband, but it's got a certain charm to it thanks to the actors involved. Florinda Balken! Guilliano Gemma! Romano Puppo! And some unknown called Kirk Douglas, who manages to acquit himself nicely amongst those greats.

Kirk is indeed a master safe breaker, just out of the jail after a three year stretch, and immediately offered another job by a mobster called Miller. Kirk's a bit torn about it (for about ten seconds) as his wife, Florinda, doesn't really want to be waiting for him to get out of jail a second time. Kirk starts preparing for a new heist in a seemingly impenetrable vault while giving Florinda the old 'I'm not up to nothing' whilst bringing under his wing trapeze artist (!) Guilliano Gemma. Gemma's got his own problems, having had a run in and a fairly mental punch up with one of Miller's goons, the late Romano Puppo, who chases Gemma all around Hamburg, out for a rematch.

Kirk teaches Guillano the ropes while Florinda flounces around in a huff, and before they're all ready to go the film takes a left turn into one of the loopiest car chases I've ever witnessed. It's simply over the top Italian goodness, and starts off with yet another fairly violent punch up between Gemma and Puppo. I won't spoil it for you here, and all I'm going to say is that I watched it twice in a row.

The heist is fairly tense and detailed too. Throw in a couple of twists and double crosses, and you've got yet another fine Italian crime movie, a genre they seemed to excel at.

There's a lot of other, similar, better foreign heist movies from this period, including the French AND HOPE TO DIE, and the Italian LAST CHANCE which I both found much more interesting than this work.

The main thing this one has going for it is once-huge American star Kirk Douglas in a very meaty central role as a super-suave master thief akin to Clooney's character in the recent "Ocean's 11" series. The supporting cast is also good, though underused, with Gemma as a trapeze artist who Douglas tries to recruit into the life of thievery. Wolfgang Preiss (the guy who always plays Nazi bad guys in war movies) plays the main mob boss with Romano Puppo in a satisfying role as his head thug. Puppo and Gemma have numerous fight and chase scenes which are fun to watch but add absolutely nothing to the plot. Speaking of plot, this one conveniently glazes over all the details of the heist, except on how Douglas deals with the security system's sound recorder. His preparations don't appear to be particularly well informed yet he seems unswervingly confident about the whole thing. Hmmm....

He also has a hot girlfriend/wife/lover/whatever Florinda Bolkan... who repeatedly tells him NOT to go through with the heist or she will leave him. These assertions make absolutely no impact on Douglas, who is single-minded in his pursuit of a big score... and then he is surprised later by all the double-crosses.

It's worth tracking down, but not exactly the most cerebral crime caper from the period. A little more realism would have done this film an immeasurable service.

I recently got this on DVD and I was surprised that it is not a half bad heist film! This might seem at first glance to be a low budget European flick, but if you stick with it there are some decent fight scenes, one pretty cool car chase (made the way when car chases really WERE car chases and not just done with crap computer effects like parts of the Gone In Sixty Seconds remake, where the drivers don't appear to be in any real jeopardy) and a surprisingly good heist story complete with some good plot twists and turns.

The film is dated in parts but all in all it holds up quite well. And Kirk Douglas gives a good performance as an over the hill thief wanting to pull one last score. All in all, The Master Touch is not bad way to spend an afternoon. Ciao, ciao, baby.