Ladrão por Excelência

Rough Cut is delicious froth, a shiny bauble of wonderfully made costume jewelry - not the real thing, but so much fun you don't care how silly and artificial it is. Burt Reynolds and the overpoweringly gorgeous Lesley-Anne Down are so perfect in the lead roles that you forgive this movie its many flaws.

This is, essentially, a fairy tale. You know everything will go right, it's just a question of how. It's like the great early 1990s British show Lovejoy - filmed in a beautiful England of pastels and greenery, of charming U characters and not-all-that-menacing bad guys.

It's just a very enjoyable, very romantic caper movie with two terrific stars and a fine supporting cast, filmed in splendid colors. Everything doesn't have to be Some Like It Hot.

Solid film that has multiple people working together to pull off a jewel heist. David Niven is good, and Burt Reynolds breaks out of his "Smokey" types role and does something more sophisticated. Very much on the Oceans mold, though not as good. I always enjoy catching it on TV, fun film with some unexpected twists and turns.

Cat burglar Jack Rhodes (Burt Reynolds) is at a high class party to steal jewels only to be scooped by Gillian Bromley (Lesley-Anne Down). He is immediately taken with her. He recruits her into his gang for a big job. She is actually a secret informer sent by Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Cyril Willis (David Niven).

Burt is trying to get by with his natural charms. It works to some extent but this movie is doomed from the start. Gillian working for Cyril should have been revealed much later. Gillian revealing that to Jack is even more problematic. One of the bad results is the lack of caper planning. That's one of the joys of a caper movie. The characters have fun planning and setting it all up. Instead, we're left with only Burt and Lesley frolicking and doing next to nothing. Any fun with the beginning gets slowly drained away. Another result from the lack of planning fun is not following the caper. First it's a plane chase and then it's a car chase. I don't think the caper actually makes sense and the final twist makes it complete non-sense. All that is left is an extremely charming Burt Reynolds.

Picture this: Burt Reynolds is at a decadent party. He spies Leslie-Anne Down in a sequined black dress and is determined to meet her. Neither of them speak, until at last, Burt opens his mouth and does his best Cary Grant impersonation. She smiles and asks, "Why are you doing Tony Curtis?" If you laughed just now, you'll like Rough Cut.

Burt catches Leslie stealing diamonds at the party, and he surreptitiously steals them from her a few minutes later. To get them back, she follows him back to his apartment and tries to stealthily rob him. Sparks fly, and he asks her on a date. In the next scene, she visits Chief Inspector David Niven; it turns out, she's cooperating with the police to catch Burt, a notorious jewel thief!

Rough Cut is a constant game of cat-and-mouse and who's-playing-who, so if you like those types of movies, you'll love this one. It's funny and full of twists and turns in the plot-and everyone is easy to root for! Rent this for a cute date night with your sweetie pie; it'll be a lot of fun.

Don Siegel assembled a good cast together and did a terrific job directing Rough Cut. Especially with Burt Reynolds doing a bad Cary Grant imitation for Lesley Anne Down setting the stage. He reminded me of Cary and she of Grace Kelly from To Catch A Thief. Add David Niven to the mix and this film is a winner.

Niven is a chief inspector for Scotland Yard and de for retirement and a rocking chair. But before he goes he's going to get Reynolds a known thief he hasn't been able to touch because Reynolds is so darn clever. But he has a libido and Niven blackmails another jewel thief Lesley Anne Down to keep tabs on him. She does in every way she can.

Nice location cinematography in London and Amsterdam One interesting moment was when Niven at a low moment appears drunk and disheveled. Highly unusual for that most unflappable of actors.

And the ending, a complete surprise. he closest I can think of is Joe Mankiewicz's western There Was A Crooked Man, a western with some dark comedy moments, a considerably darker film than Rough Cut. But the endings are similar and this one will floor you.

This one is a real delight.