Il colpo era perfetto, ma...

"Midas Run" is a film I watched solely because it stars Fred Astaire...and now after seeing it, I've seen every Astaire film but one. Needless to say, I am a fan of him and his films. Unfortunately, I am not a huge fan of this movie...it's worth seeing but nothing more.

Astaire is oddly cast as a British member of the Secret Service. Why they didn't cast an actual Brit is beyond me. Well, apparently he's worked hard his whole life and yet has been passed over again for knighthood. So, he comes up with a plan to heist a gold shipment...and how and why and what he'll do with it is what you'll have to learn yourself.

The plot to this film is very complicated and has many twists and turns....perhaps too many. After a while, there are just so many twists that it seems as if the film is very proud of its cleverness. I think simplifying the plot, a bit, would have made it all seem more possible and plausible.

Another problem with the film is the most unintentionally funny sex scene in the history of cinema. You really have to see it to believe it...and it's bound to make you laugh, as I did. It's very badly done and preposterous.

Apart from these complaints, the film is very watchable and, as always, Astaire is very good despite the odd casting. Well worth seeing...but not among the actor's best.

An irritating and completely uninspired music covers the dialogue in many scenes of the film. Anne Heywood is very beautiful, I fell in love with her, as a teenager when I saw her in "The Lady of Monza," made in 1969, same year as this "Midas Run". Richard Crenna was also a beautiful human which I've seen in many good action movies: "Wait Until Dark", "Marooned", "Un Flic", "Breakheart Pass", plus the 3 Rambo movies with Stallone. Fred Astaire, Ralph Richardson, Adolfo Celi, three very different actors as personality, all three outstanding in their category. But this film is a failure from all points of view. Boredom and waste of time. 2 stars, only for the very sexy body of Mrs. Heywood.

Reading the reviews over the years on IMDb, one might come to the conclusion that many very bad movies become cult classics over time. That is, those that are poorly made, scripted, acted, shot, etc. If so, I nominate "Midas Run" for just such a distinction.

The idea behind the plot is OK. Just four months after this movie came out, "The Italian Job" hit theaters. The two films had identical plots – theft of millions in gold in a European country. But the difference is that the second film had some real meat in it, good acting, a terrific script and good comedy to go along with the action and crime. "Midas Run," on the other hand, has a horrible script, below amateur direction, infantile camera and technical work, and the hammiest acting I've seen in a long time.

I suspect that this may have been intended to be so outlandishly lousy as to push it for cult status. That's because it has a cast with some highly acclaimed performers. They are mixed in with some much lesser performers. And then there is the musical score by Elmer Bernstein. This is the guy who composed the music for some great Broadway shows and Hollywood films – "The Magnificent Seven," "The Great Escape," "To Kill a Mockingbird," "The Ten Commandments," "Ghostbusters" and many more. He was nominated 14 times for Academy Awards and won an Oscar for "Thoroughly Modern Millie." But, anyone who can sit through this movie and not grimace at some of the scenes with the musical background must be deaf. That's why I think it must be intentional. This film has all the features of an old-fashioned TV soap opera. I have no idea what the daytime soaps are like today, but back when, they had some very hammy acting, over-emphasis and often poorly matched music, and mediocre to poor direction. I think those who couldn't do too well in the movies or on Broadway got the early TV production jobs.

Anyway, the only reason I give "Midas Run" three stars is because of a different twist toward the end – novel and nice, but too easily guessed at way earlier; and its cast of high caliber actors, only one of whom is any good. That one is Ralph Richards as Lord Henshaw. Cesar Romero is so-so as Carlo Dodero, and Adolfo Celi is mediocre, with little energy, as General Ferranti. John Le Mesurier is fair as Wells. Fred Astaire is terrible as John Pedley. Again, it must have been intentional because in his best comedic roles in musical comedies, he seldom so obviously panned for the camera – with smirks, quirks, off glances, rolling eyes, etc.

But the rottenest tomatoes are reserved for Richard Crenna as Mike Warden and Anne Heywood as Sylvia Giroux. Crenna was mostly a supporting actor in his career, although he did have some lead roles. He was best in his more serious roles. Heywood is a British-born actress who played in mostly lesser films, although she did play opposite some leading male actors of the time. If one wants to get an idea of her talents, check out her 34 acting credits on IMDb. She has to be in the running for lowest ratings overall of an actor or actress. She wisely retired from films in 1988 after her first husband died and she married again.

These two in this film are really bad in their roles. The characters would be OK, but the script and their acting are terrible. There are a couple of scenes that are so bad that they really do evoke laughter. They have some slo-mo with close-ups of flowers and faces, the couple walking through a field of flowers, more slow-mo, more facial close-ups, and music that sounds like it may have come in part from a funeral dirge, war action, and symphony all mixed together and blasted a couple of decibels above the rest of the sound. It truly made the usual soap opera fare seem superb.

In a nutshell, this film is so bad that it's funny at times. Just about any other film one might chose would be better than this one.

This movie starts out pretty good and I found it quite interesting with the plan to rob a lot of gold. Unfortunately I found that as the movie progressed it became to much focused on the the two leads romance instead of details in the robbery. I find that is a pity and thought some of the romantic scenes just dragged on.

Midas Run was okay acted but nothing in directing or acting to write books about. Would I recommend this movie? Well if it is on the television then it is an okay time killer, but it is not a movie I would spend long time searching for. There are both better and worse movies in this category and this comes out as pretty average.

An appealing caper movie with an all-star cast. Fred Astaire is mischievous as a longtime British Secret Service man perennially passed over for knighthood. Disappointed again, he masterminds a plan to steal gold bullion on an airplane. He cons ex-Ivy League professor Richard Crenna & Anne Heywood, jet set

ex-wife of Jacques Sernas to help him recruit a gang of thieves. With good guys Ralph Richardson & Roddy McDowall, bad guys Cesar Romero & Adolfo Celi.

Filmed in London and Italy. Delightful music by Elmer Bernstein with Anne

Heywood performing the title song. Directed by actor Alf Kjellin.