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"

Okay, what do you need to perfect or make a good movie about theivery? A strong plot or a good source to base it on. B.fleshed out and fun characters C.a fun storyline or D.all of the above. If you said all of the above, that's right. These are the central elements that makes "The Thief Who Came to Dinner", worth checking out. Okay, first off this a dated 70's film that will probably turn off most people, but if you don't take it seriously as it tries to be, it's worth it's running time. Ryan O'Neal stars as Webster McGee, a computer programmer who one day ups and quits his somewhat cushy job and becomes a burglar. McGee is a very cocky, fun-loving guy, who you wouldn't suspect as being someone who'd break into your home and steal things. That he does it with such precision, so much so that he has an investigator played by the late Warren Oates hot on his trail. While playing mind games with Oates, he falls in love with Laura (Jacqueline Bisset), who knows what he does and accepts him for it, which goes unexplained in the movie. Director Bud Yorkin does a very good job here directing from Walter Hill's adapted screenplay. But it if was tighter paced, it would've been a lot more fun. There are times where the film lags and it really feels as it's missing something. There are alot of nice and breezy sequences prefectly shot by Director of Photograph Phillip Lanthrop. Henry Mancini's score is absolutely fabulous and arguably one of his more underrated gems. A little more energy would've gone a long way with this one. On the whole, I'd recommend it for it's performances and definetly rooting for the Chess Burglar.

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).

Considering that its been close to forgotten, TTWCTD was a pleasant and substantial surprise when I watched it a few years ago.

This is far from a perfect film as it has several flaws. While the caper scenes involving central character Webster McGee's (Ryan O'Neal) are entertaining enough they're hardly groundbreaking and have been done better in other films. And as another reviewer said, the film probably could've done without the segment involving the arrogant chess expert Zukovsky (played by Austin Pendelton). While not without humour, in the context of the rest of the film it's played too broadly by Pendelton and doesn't really fit in.

But there is much of interest in this film that make it well worth catching up with. The central romance between O'Neal and wealthy socialite Jackie (who gives him his chance to move into the upper echelons of society) played by Jacqueline Bisset isn't really that convincing, perhaps deliberately so. McGee's attraction to the vacuous and cold Laura only makes sense in the context of Jill Clayburgh's performance as McGee's ex-wife Jackie. In her brief on-screen time, Jackie comes across as a far more likable persona then the cold and chilly Laura (doubtless this is also because Bisset has always come across as a cold and unlikable personality for mine). But we can see in Jackie's one scene with Webster that she has tics and neuroses that remind Webster of his past and he has moved on with someone far more frivolous and insubstantial.

But the really fascinating part of the film is the relationship between McGee and the insurance investigator Dave Riley. If this film were made today, Riley would most likely be portrayed as a harried, bumbling 'loser' with McGee (and the filmmakers) regularly mocking his failure to catch him at every turn.

But TTWCTD does something highly unusual and daring. It has McGee display immense sympathy and empathy for Riley even as he's doing his best to catch him. Why? Because he knows that he was just like him previously - someone stuck in a dead-end job trying to do their best but feeling immensely dissatisfied about their life and feeling helpless to do anything about it.

It's this relationship which is the real strength of the film, helped especially by Oates' marvellous performance as Riley and helps it stay in the memory long after one has finished watching it.

And while it has its detractors, I also found Henry Mancini's music score very pleasing on the ear.

Look, this is 2010 or later. You've checked out Serpico, Mean Streets, The Godfather---all the obvious choices. But I just watched The Thief Who Came to Dinner last night, and it made me realize that there's probably a lot I've been missing. A lot of terrific movies that were maybe ignored or under-estimated when they first came out (for some reason or another) that are actually pretty great.

Let me put it to you this way. if you're a guy (or a gal) with a sort of boring job, who's occasionally fantasized about chucking it all and just becoming a professional jewel thief---this is the movie you want to live in. Ryan O'Neal is handsome and charming, Jacqueline Bisset is beautiful, and Warren Oates is very Warren Oates-y. The story(by Walter hill, based on a novel) works, and you won't be left hanging by some typical early 70's drag ending (thank God)---I don't know what else to say. The Thief Who came to Dinner is a really good time. It should have made $100 million dollars in 1973. It's a tragedy (possible slight overstatement) that it didn't.