Topkapi (film)
| Topkapi | |
|---|---|
.jpeg) Original film poster | |
| Directed by | Jules Dassin |
| Written by | Monja Danischewsky |
| Produced by | Jules Dassin |
| Starring | Melina Mercouri Peter Ustinov Maximilian Schell Robert Morley |
| Cinematography | Henri Alekan |
| Edited by | Roger Dwyre |
| Music by | Manos Hadjidakis |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
Running time | 119 min |
| Country | Template:Film US |
| Language | English |
Topkapi (1964) is a heist film made by Filmways Pictures and distributed by United Artists. It was produced and directed by the emigre American film director, Jules Dassin. The film is based on Eric Ambler's novel The Light of Day (1962), adapted as a screenplay by Monja Danischewsky.
The film stars Melina Mercouri (who later became Dassin's wife), Maximilian Schell, Peter Ustinov, Robert Morley, Gilles Ségal and Akim Tamiroff.
The music score was by Manos Hadjidakis, the cinematography by Henri Alekan and the costume design by Theoni V. Aldredge.
Plot
 | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (October 2011) |
The film opens with glamorous and avaricious Elizabeth Lipp (Melina Mercouri) visiting Istanbul, where she sees a traveling fair featuring replicas of treasures from the Topkapi Palace, and says enigmatically to herself that now she sees how "it" can be done. Next she cases the Topkapi, clearly fascinated by the emerald-encrusted dagger of Sultan Mahmud I. Leaving Turkey, she recruits her ex-lover, Swiss master-criminal Walter Harper (Maximilian Schell), to help plan the theft. Harper insists that they work only with "amateurs"—individuals with no police record, and they engage Cedric Page (Robert Morley), an eccentric British master of all things mechanical, including security systems, and Giulio the Human Fly (Ségal), a mute acrobat whose role will be stealing the dagger while suspended from above to defeat the floor-mounted alarm.
Harper and Lipp then hire Arthur Simon Simpson (Peter Ustinov)—a small-time hustler of Anglo-Egyptian parentage operating in Greece, to drive a luxury American convertible into Turkey. The car however, contains hidden explosives and firearms to be used in the burglary - they have set up the unknowing Simpson as driver in case the border police search the car. Turkish Customs notice Simpson's expired passport, search the car, find the firearms, and grill Simpson. The Turkish Secret Police conclude that the gang are plotting an assassination at a forthcoming military parade, and recruit Simpson, under threat of death, to spy on Harper and Lipp. Page, picking up the car in Istanbul, is told that only the "importer" Simpson is legally permitted to drive it in Turkey, (a police ruse), saddling the gang with the "schmo" Harper had intended to dump. Simpson leaves notes in discarded cigarette boxes for his police handlers - but, being ignorant of the conspirators' true intentions, most of his intelligence is worthless: he "tips" the police that the group are Russian agents.
When the gang member who was to have supported Giulio from above during the robbery injures his hands, Simpson is reluctantly engaged as a substitute. He confesses that they are being watched by the police, and Harper revises his plan and accelerates the timing of the burglary, arranging to give their police tails the slip at a big wrestling match. That evening, while Lipp distracts the keeper of a nearby lighthouse so that Page can surreptitiously prevent his light from giving the burglars' position away, Harper, Simpson and Giulio break into the museum's treasury, steal the dagger, replace it with a replica, and exit without triggering the alarm. Unnoticed by the thieves, during the robbery a bird flies in through the window they entered, and is trapped inside when they exit.
The gang successfully deliver the dagger to Joseph, proprietor of the traveling fair display, who is assigned to smuggle the dagger out of the country as part of his replica collection. As part of Harper's plan to outsmart the police, he and his fellow gang members now go to police headquarters to "reveal" their discovery of weapons behind a panel in the door of the car. When the police inspector asks Simpson to vouch for Harper and Lipp's whereabouts that day, Simpson throws in his lot with the thieves and backs up their alibi. However, the inspector learns that the alarm at the Topkapi has been triggered by the trapped bird. Simpson's final notes to the police provide a connection, (which Simpson himself had not understood), between the gang and the traveling fair which shows replicas of the Topkapi treasures. Putting two and two together, the inspector confidently informs the thieves that he knows why they came to Turkey, because "a little bird told me".
The film closes with the gang in a Turkish prison. Irrepressible, Lipp begins to tell them of her fascination with the Russian Imperial Crown Jewels in the Kremlin....
Production
Ambler's novel is different from the movie on several counts, with the story narrated by Simpson (named Arthur Abdel Simpson in the book), so that the reader only gradually comes to work out what Harper and his associates are really up to. Simpson in the book is blackmailed into driving the car to Istanbul after Harper catches him trying to steal Harper's travelers' checks. The book features frequent flashbacks to Simpson's schooldays in England, which help to explain his character and motives more clearly than in the film.
According to Jules Dassin, he originally planned to cast Peter Sellers as Simpson,[1] but Sellers refused to work with Maximilian Schell, who he claimed had the reputation for being difficult. Dassin was not prepared to dispense with Schell, and so cast Ustinov in place of Sellers.
Although he played one of the movie's leading roles, Peter Ustinov was nominated in 1964 for—and won—the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor rather than the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Simpson. In an interview given on Ustinov's death in 2004, Maximilian Schell surmised that this may have been due to the misconception that a servile individual like Simpson could only be portrayed via a "supporting actor" role.
Appearing in supporting roles were Gilles Ségal as the human "fly" and Joe Dassin as Joseph, who runs the traveling fair display that is supposed to smuggle the dagger out of Turkey. The athletic Ségal later inspired other 'trickwire' stunts, including a few used for the Mission Impossible TV show and movie. Joseph (Joe) Dassin was the son of Topkapi's director Jules Dassin: he appeared as an actor in a handful of films, but was better known as a singer-songwriter.
The film was shot on location in Istanbul, Turkey, and in Paris at the Boulogne-Billancourt Studios.
References
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (January 2011) |