Seven Thieves

Seven Thieves (Henry Hathaway, 1960) One of the posters for Seven Thieves screams out the cast of characters in this Cinemascope black and white film and manages to have its own little obfuscation in there: The Dancer! (Joan Collins) The Professor! (Edward G. Robinson) The Baron! (Eli Wallach) The Gambler! (Rod Steiger) The Beatnik! (Eli Wallach) The Muscle Boy! (Berry Kroeger) The Safe Cracker! (Michael Dante). Well, kinda, the characters are a bit more nuanced than that, and "The Beatnik" is a stretch for a jazz saxophone player, but, it was the parlance of the time...and Wallach, in the film, fills the bill of two of those mentioned. Hey! It's a Heist film, and one should expect some fudging of the truth here and there, even in...and maybe especially in...the advertising.

 

Seven Thieves may be long forgotten—I'd never heard of it until Todd Liebenow of "The Forgotten Film-cast" podcast gave me a choice of four films to consider discussing in an up-coming episode.* Seven Thieves was a tempting subject—directed by Henry Hathaway—with a cast that included Wallach, Edward G. Robinson, Rod Steiger, Alexander Scourby, Sebastian Cabot, and Joan Collins. The cast alone makes it worth seeing, even if it only amounts to another variation on the One Last Big Score Caper Movie.

Professor Theo Wilkins (Robinson) is a discredited ex-patriate living in Monte Carlo. He spends his time at the beach explaining to little children how to collect shells, but, in the back of his mind is a plan. All he needs is one last "element" to bring it all together and keep it all together in order to pull it off. That "element" shows up one day in the form of gambler and thief Paul Mason (Steiger), who has affection for the old man, but is reluctant to get involved in another of the old man's quixotic ventures.

The plan, Wilkins explains, is to steal ₣4,000,000 from the vault of the casino at Monte Carlo, which will require some special equipment and specialized personnel, all of which he has, but he needs Mason, his trusted mentor, to join the group in order to keep his motley crew of conspirators in line.

The key to the whole enterprise is the casino employee (Scourby) who is so besotted with "exotic dancer" Melanie (Collins) that he will do anything for her, even rob his employer. But, he merely provides information (and invitations) to make the job go smoother...and faster. Time, you see, is the critical element here, with an elaborate distraction on the night of a special celebration at the casino. Security is tight, but it just might be too tight to take advantage of. 

47 minutes in (after much bickering and negotiating), the caper starts, involving a trick wheel-chair, a cyanide pill, a conveniently open window, some safe-cracking tools, some steady nerves and balance, and the casino manager's reluctance to have "a scene" disrupt the joint's big night. It just about comes off without a hitch...but, after all, there needs to be some element of suspense to make the movie enjoyable. 

Now, this was made in 1960, so movie-morals hadn't loosened up so much that producers might let the thieves actually get away with their ill-gotten gains. But, here, they do...but manage to have it both ways so that Boston Blue Noses and the Catholic Legion of Decency won't condemn the film for celebrating "the wages of sin." It's a rather thin ledge the film has to negotiate to do it...and far-thinner than the one that had to accommodate Rod Steiger. But, it still manages to be a semi-enjoyable film, with quite a few things to admire.

 

* The movie we decided on was The Blue Max and the episode discussing it is here.