Un uomo da rispettare

To insure some box office for this film released in America as Master Touch, Kirk Douglas was added to this Italian-German production filmed in and around Hamburg. I'm sure that Douglas did this one for the European vacation he was going to get.

Master Touch is your average caper film that has elements of other films like Bullitt, The Asphalt Jungle and Topkapi. But it doesn't glide into the different moods of these films, it rather lurches uncomfortably.

Kirk is a master safe-cracker who's just returned from a stretch in the joint. It's never really explained why this American is operating in Germany, so I assume it was a German prison. Wolfgang Preiss, a syndicate boss for whom he was doing a job when he was caught wants him for another caper. Douglas turns him down flat, but Preiss won't take no for an answer.

In the meantime though he's pinched for cash so what to do, but back to the old trade and he decides to pull the job that Preiss offered on his own. He teams up with young Giuliano Gemma, a young circus performer who he saw best one of Preiss's hoods in a fight. In the meantime wife Florinda Bolkan pleads with Kirk to go straight.

The best parts of Master Touch are devoted to the robbery and it is here the film most resembles Topkapi. The robbery sequences show that Kirk indeed had a Master Touch.

What he didn't have is good judgment in people and that leads to a climax somewhat reminiscent of The Asphalt Jungle. I'm not about to give away any endings.

Master Touch will never make anyone's top 10 list of Kirk Douglas films. Good in spots it still leaves quite a bit to be desired. But Kirk's fans around the world will like it.

A spaghetti western, or in this case, a spaghetti heist. Starts out as the usual story of someone being released from prison, determined to pull one last job that will set him up for life. Stars kirk douglas as wallace, and a lot of people we've never heard of before. Co-stars florinda bolkan (as the wife) and giuliano gemma (as the "business" partner). It takes a lot of time to get to the actual heist... car chases, car stunts, fist fights. A small, wooden gate that just rips the roof right off a car. Such a poorly made car! Super duper 1970s music, when wallace is home with the wife. All that really matters here is the last thirty minutes. It's set up as a regular bank heist, but there are some interesting twists and turns along the way. Directed by michele lupo, who died young at 56. Kirk douglas lived to 103! And was nominated for three film oscars.

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.

It may interest some to know that the score was composed by spaghetti-western and crime flick master Ennio Morricone. For some reason this goes unlisted on the DVD I own but is stated on the beginning credits (and the IMDb file).

The scoring often follows a somewhat formulaic approach that has been taken to quite a few of these films (i.e. recapitulate the theme endlessly), but there are high points. An example would be long scene preceding the film's conclusion, when Wallace is running through a coal factory.

The film itself is fairly entertaining, if not for the antiquated technologies regarded as cutting edge, and Douglas' sharp suits. Features some fairly hairy car-chases esp. considering the lack of special effects but long (and decidedly cheesy) romantic interludes with Anna.

Not spoiling ANYTHING, the movie actually has a great twist and is fairly suspenseful as the characters plan to execute the biggest heist in town.