The Thief Who Came to Dinner

I have loved this movies for years and wish it were on DVD. Ryan O'Neal gives his career best performance as the amateur thief who decides that this way of life is more exciting than what he did before. The Houston location is interesting and the capers themselves are hair-raising. The addition of the chess motif and the relationship between Warren Oates and O'Neal was almost touching. The ending makes you see how much the O'Neal character liked the detective played by Oates.The film also contains one of my favorite lines of dialog as well. When Bissett asks O'Neal what it is like to rob a house, he answers :" It's like a heart attack with a lot of fear thrown in"

In 1973, the best chess programs running on the fastest supercomputers could barely play a passable game of chess, much less challenge a master level player such as the Austin Pendleton character would be (newspaper chess columnist for the Houston Chronicle).

I've seen this film twice, and I like it quite a bit. It's possibly the best performance O'Neal has given, Oates does a nice turn, and it has Jackie Bisset. The plot is okay, but the performances really give this film its punch. "Thief..." may not be for everyone, but it's worth a shot. The film may seem a bit dated and slow, so viewer beware.

Ryan O'Neal was so clever and seductive in this movie, I wanted to go to bet with him too. The focal point of the movie is the fascinating love story -- not between O'Neal and Bisset or between O'Neal and Jill Clayburgh -- both of which were quite entertaining, but the cerebral symbiotic linkage between Warren Oates and O'Neal. This has to be Oates' best performance of all time. Young Ned Beatty and Charles Cioffi are very good --leading a quite capable supporting cast. Very enjoyable movie.

There are some humorous scenes, some suspense, some great Houston locations, some really bad 1970s clothes and some interesting architecture,

This film relies mostly on the attractiveness and charm of its leads in their physical prime.