Top Job

An elderly school teacher (the late great Edward G. Robinson) employs an electrotech (Riccardo Cucciolla) , a playboy (Robert Hoffmann), a safe cracker (Georges Rigaud), and a military man(Klaus Kinskey) to complete a daring heist of 10 million in diamonds from a vault in Rio De Janeiro. This crime caper has a good buildup, the heist suitably engrossing. I could see the end coming (mostly), but that didn't detract much from my overall enjoyment of the movie. It still remains among the top caper movies that I've seen.

My Grade: B+

Blue Underground DVD Extras: Poster and Stills Gallery; and Theatrical Trailer

Eye Candy: blink and you'll miss tiny boobies courtesy of Jussara

This film belongs to the top ten that the sixties decade provided us, a gritty heist movie without comedy. Admit that the Italian co productions of those years were mostly semi comedy topics, maybe not hilarious, but light hearted. Once again, we have Edward G Robinson involved in a major heist, remember him in THE SEVEN THIEVES, directed by Hank Hathaway, back in 1959. No realism here, only myth and excitement, a great film de genre, on the same scale as SEVEN GOLDEN MEN, but maybe more serious though. Casting over the top for this kind of feature. And what I like the most in this picture is that there is no ONLY, UNIQUE lead character, but a bunch of lead ones, and not played by super stars, not widely known actors. The most known : Adolfo Celli and Eddy Robinson have only supporting roles, and at the lowest level. The influence of RIFIFI, TOPKAPI, CAPER OF THE GOLDEN BULLS is so obvious, for the heist itself, with no talk, and also the technological part of the preparation, with the alarm system and the safe. Rather dark story for this kind of topic. No light hearted for sure.

This is a truly great caper in the RIFIFI tradition, with plenty of twists and surprises, spectacularly high-tech (for its day) action set pieces and glamorous location work in Rio de Janeiro, Rome and around the world. Many other capers since THE GRAND SLAM have borrowed shamelessly from it -- ENTRAPMENT being the latest that springs to mind -- but, trust me, this one did it better than the rest all the way to its uncompromising, un-Hollywood ending. This is the one to catch if it's ever around again!

Released in the USA by Paramount as GRAND SLAM in the late sixties, this slickly-made heist film is a first-rate effort exploiting the Jules Dassin classic, RIFIFI. The all-star international cast is exceptional, with Klaus Kinski being the standout. One of the best of it's kind, and still enjoyable today. Ennio Morricone wrote the eclectic score, featuring some catchy bossa-nova tunes to complement the location. Thanks to Image Entertainment, the picture is now available on DVD in a widescreen version to capture all the excitement! Check it out.

What a brilliant caper movie! Before I go on, though, I need to point out that this movie is a reworking of the movie Rififi (1954)--a French caper movie. While Rififi generally gets higher marks among critics, I also liked this one.

The movie is unusual in that it has such a multinational cast and quite a bit of the movie is dubbed because of this. This didn't matter to say the least. However, it was interesting to see Adolfo Celi in the movie. He was the lead villain in Bond's THUNDERBALL and in this movie his voice is dubbed with a totally different voice and so he sounds a lot different.

Now on to what I loved--the complicated and exciting plot. It just keeps you guessing again and again--even up until the last scene. Also, the acting was great and the characters were well-written--everyone seemed to be at the top of their form.

So, if you want a movie about a gang of thieves pulling the ultimate heist and want to see one that's among the best, give this film a try--if you can find it, as it's not exactly a well-known flick. Perhaps with so many films like it ("Topkapi", "The Killing""Bob le Flambeur" and many others) it just got lost in the process.,