IMDb RATING
7.5/10
31K
YOUR RATING
The daughter of an art forger teams up with a burglar to steal one of her father's forgeries and protect his secret.The daughter of an art forger teams up with a burglar to steal one of her father's forgeries and protect his secret.The daughter of an art forger teams up with a burglar to steal one of her father's forgeries and protect his secret.
- Awards
- 1 nomination total
Roger Tréville
- Auctioneer
- (as Roger Treville)
Edward Malin
- Insurance Clerk
- (as Eddie Malin)
Georg Stanford Brown
- Waiter
- (uncredited)
Louise Chevalier
- Cleaning Woman
- (uncredited)
Rémy Longa
- Young Man
- (uncredited)
Pierre Mirat
- Guard
- (uncredited)
Jacques Ramade
- Guard
- (uncredited)
Olga Valéry
- Lady with the dog
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
What makes a movie like this so wonderful? It's probably just an age thing (I remember seeing this movie at the cinema), but when I saw it again recently I just felt a sense of joy and pleasure and, yes, optimism. Now these are words that may be almost incomprehensible to today's jaded, cynical and, often, brutalised audiences, and I am sure that many would see this movie as slow, naive and totally irrelevant.
But for me the effortless playing, the perfect timing and understated sophistication is so much more intelligent, witty and rewarding than the clunking, crude sign-posted so called "rom-coms" of today.
This is not their best film by any means, but to watch O'Toole and Hepburn playing off each other with such natural and fluent grace is simply magical. Lighthearted fluff like this completely works when the actors really know what they are doing.
And has there ever been anybody who is simultaneously so sophisticated and vulnerable as Audrey Hepburn? There is a scene where she is wearing a chaste little nightdress and she put on a pair of ordinary street galoshes. As she clumps across the room she displays more sex appeal and sheer class than any of today's moussed up, made up, blown up actresses could ever comprehend.
But for me the effortless playing, the perfect timing and understated sophistication is so much more intelligent, witty and rewarding than the clunking, crude sign-posted so called "rom-coms" of today.
This is not their best film by any means, but to watch O'Toole and Hepburn playing off each other with such natural and fluent grace is simply magical. Lighthearted fluff like this completely works when the actors really know what they are doing.
And has there ever been anybody who is simultaneously so sophisticated and vulnerable as Audrey Hepburn? There is a scene where she is wearing a chaste little nightdress and she put on a pair of ordinary street galoshes. As she clumps across the room she displays more sex appeal and sheer class than any of today's moussed up, made up, blown up actresses could ever comprehend.
The trio of William Wyler directing, Audrey Hepburn as a charming French woman in need of help and Peter O'Toole as the dashing fellow who agrees to commit a crime for her seemed at first glance to many film aficionados to be potentially a fine partnership for making a winning comedy. "How to Steal a Million" in fact turned out to be atmospheric, very French, very sophisticated and a great deal of fun. The clever story and screenplay by George Bradshaw and Harry Kurnitz worked almost everywhere, I suggest. Some of the film's humor seems obvious to me--the use of rotund Gallic comedian Moustache borders upon parody at times; but this is a fundamentally light-hearted romp of a film from its flimsy but serviceable premise to its satisfying romantic conclusion. It is a comedy; and it turns upon O'Toole's ability to devise a means of stealing a well-guarded art object from a major French Museum, a physical feat which he proves to be quite capable of achieving. The reason he is asked by Hepburn to plan that robbery is that the lovely statue now on display is about to be examined and authenticated by experts--and her father created the work, as he has created so many others, his charming and adroit forgeries. There are several other currents at work in the plot as well; there is a U.S. buyer after the piece, Hepburn 's belief that her champion is a crook turns out to be an unfounded assumption, and he is falling in love with her as she is with him throughout the unfolding of actions and events. The production is expensive-looking but never "heavy" in feel to my way of thinking. Givenchy did Miss Hepburn's gowns, Charles Lang was the cinematographer, and the production design by Alexander Trauner and the bubbly music by John Williams both served the story very strongly. In the cast, O'Toole and Hepburn seem perfectly mismatched; she is a bit inconsistent, I believe not knowing how "old" to play her part; O'Toole is intelligent, and plays both a crook with a sense of humor and a romantic admirer of Miss Hepburn's very successfully. Her father who proudly but inadvertently loans the piece to the Museum and misses the clause relative to its being examined by experts is Hugh Griffith, who suggests as much as he blusters. His likability is the key to the plot, because if he were not talented and likable and worth saving, the viewers would not accept the story-line'e basic premise--much ado to save him. Eli Wallach is bright as usual as the obsessed would-be buyer; others in the cast include Charles Boyer, Fernand Gravey, Marcel Dallio, Jacques Mann, the aforementioned Moustache and Roger Treville. The film is often discussed as if it were a trifle, a cinematic glass of champagne and a delightful and only a bit-overlong comedy. the attitudes expressed miss the three points of the film...It is noir, since the police cannot be brought into the case; it is comedy, which means its tone of light-heartedness and clever dialogue is very often exactly right; and its sub-plot is adventure, a very daring and ingenious combination of psychology, physical paraphernalia and enjoyable suspense. It is well-liked by many, and as a writer, I am certainly one of its admirers..
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William Wyler crafts a delightfully frothy caper backed up by wonderful on screen chemistry between Peter O'Toole & Audrey Hepburn. It seems to me that Hepburn always managed to bond with her Male co-stars, and here the interplay between O'Toole and herself is wonderful. Check out a long sequence of events involving the pair hiding out in a closet, it's gold dusted cinema.
The film's central plot involves Hepburn & O'Toole planning a daring robbery from a Paris museum to keep her art forger Father (a delightful Hugh Griffith) out of trouble, at first the couple are purely business partners with no love lost for each other, but as the story plays out the pair are forced to get along and etc.
The burglary itself is dramatic, attention grabbing entertainment, and it's also the film's highest point, but overall the film as a whole is simply good romantic fun. Also helps that it features a very tidy shift for the finale to further reward the audience for their time spent with the movie. Throw in dapper turns from Charles Boyer & Eli Wallach too, and it's all good really.
Open the wine, sit back and relax with Pete & Audrey. 8/10
The film's central plot involves Hepburn & O'Toole planning a daring robbery from a Paris museum to keep her art forger Father (a delightful Hugh Griffith) out of trouble, at first the couple are purely business partners with no love lost for each other, but as the story plays out the pair are forced to get along and etc.
The burglary itself is dramatic, attention grabbing entertainment, and it's also the film's highest point, but overall the film as a whole is simply good romantic fun. Also helps that it features a very tidy shift for the finale to further reward the audience for their time spent with the movie. Throw in dapper turns from Charles Boyer & Eli Wallach too, and it's all good really.
Open the wine, sit back and relax with Pete & Audrey. 8/10
Somehow Audrey Hepburn made fluffy romantic caper movies look
like high art. Take this adorable trifle directed by William Wyler
with Audrey looking glorious in her trademark Givenchy clothing.
Audrey could have phone in a performance, but she's totally
enchanting as always, making us overlook the seams in the script.
She's beautifully supported by Peter O'Toole, who never looked
handsomer or more Cary Grant-ish in his life as Simon, the art
expert who gets talked into stealing Audrey's father's statue of the
Cellini Venus back from the museum when it is learned the statue
has to be authenticated for insurance purposes.
Hugh Griffith, as Audrey's father, is a delightful rogue of an art
forger and Charles Boyer and Eli Wallach just add to the fun. The
actual theft of the statue is quite ingenious, if a little too drawn out.
Still, here's two hours of pure enchantment. That Ferrari still looks
good nearly forty years later, and if Audrey was walking down Fifth
Avenue, dressed in Givenchy's stunning creations today, she'd
cause a riot. Check out that lace cocktail dress with the matching
lace mask at the bar of the Ritz in Paris! It doesn't get any chicer
than this.
like high art. Take this adorable trifle directed by William Wyler
with Audrey looking glorious in her trademark Givenchy clothing.
Audrey could have phone in a performance, but she's totally
enchanting as always, making us overlook the seams in the script.
She's beautifully supported by Peter O'Toole, who never looked
handsomer or more Cary Grant-ish in his life as Simon, the art
expert who gets talked into stealing Audrey's father's statue of the
Cellini Venus back from the museum when it is learned the statue
has to be authenticated for insurance purposes.
Hugh Griffith, as Audrey's father, is a delightful rogue of an art
forger and Charles Boyer and Eli Wallach just add to the fun. The
actual theft of the statue is quite ingenious, if a little too drawn out.
Still, here's two hours of pure enchantment. That Ferrari still looks
good nearly forty years later, and if Audrey was walking down Fifth
Avenue, dressed in Givenchy's stunning creations today, she'd
cause a riot. Check out that lace cocktail dress with the matching
lace mask at the bar of the Ritz in Paris! It doesn't get any chicer
than this.
A charming adventure comedy. It revolves around good-hearted art forgery and the need to set thing right. The basic plot is rather implausible, but it hardly matters. There is a great chemistry between the primary characters and the story is pleasantly devoid of attributes that would prevent the film from being enjoyed by anybody from 10 years-old and up. The blend of mild suspense, gentle comedy and a bit of romance is not too intellectually provocative, but it makes for great fun. It's a film I can sit down an watch with my teenage daughter, my younger son, my wife and my mother, and everybody has a good time and comes away feeling better than when they sat down.
Did you know
- TriviaWalter Matthau was the first choice for the Eli Wallach part but was asking $200,000, so the producers opted for the less expensive George C. Scott. Scott had been on the set for a few weeks before shooting began. However, on his first day of shooting, he didn't show up until after lunch, and director William Wyler decided to fire him. He was already finding it difficult to handle two heavy drinkers, Peter O'Toole and Hugh Griffith, and the prospect of a third was just too overwhelming. On hearing of Scott's removal from the production, Audrey Hepburn became quite inconsolable.
- GoofsWhen Bonnet gives the curator the statue, the curator touches the white marble with his bare hands. A real curator would never touch a marble work of art with bare hands, as the oils from the skin can stain the marble, turning it yellow. Curators always wear white gloves before touching any work of art.
- Quotes
[Nicole describes the burglar to her Papa]
Nicole Bonnet: Well, it was pitch dark and there he was. Tall, blue eyes, slim, quite good-looking... in a brutal, mean way, Papa. A terrible man!
- ConnectionsFeatured in Star Wars: Music by John Williams (1980)
- SoundtracksLa Marseillaise
(1792) (uncredited)
Written by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle
In the score when the statue is transported to the museum
- How long is How to Steal a Million?Powered by Alexa
- Bonnet house location?
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Cómo robar un millón de dólares
- Filming locations
- Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France(Bonnet's house at junction Rue Parmentier & Boulevard Bineau, now demolished)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $6,000,000 (estimated)
- Runtime2 hours 3 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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Top Gap
What is the Japanese language plot outline for Comment voler un million de dollars (1966)?
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