How to Steal a Million

Infobox_Film
name = How to Steal a Million


caption = film poster by Robert McGinnis| imdb_id = 0060522
writer = George Bradshaw (story)
Harry Kurnitz
starring = Audrey Hepburn
Peter O'Toole
Eli Wallach
Hugh Griffith
Charles Boyer
director = William Wyler
producer = William Wyler
Fred Kohlmar
distributor = 20th Century Fox
released = July 13, 1966
runtime = 123 min.
language = English
music = Johnny Williams
cinematography = Charles Lang
editing = Robert Swink
country = USA
budget = $6,000,000 (estimated)

"How to Steal a Million" (1966) is an art-heist movie, directed by William Wyler, starring Peter O'Toole as Simon Dermott, caught by Audrey Hepburn sneaking through her house clutching a (forged) painting. Hepburn plays Nicole Bonnet, the daughter of genius art fraud Charles Bonnet (Hugh Griffith). The central theme of the movie is the recovery from a Parisian museum of a fake Cellini committed by Bonnet's grandfather, before its discovery and exposure as such, and is enlivened by the romantic angle between the characters played by O'Toole and Hepburn.

Plot

Charles Bonnet is a professional art forger, and has just loaned a forged Cellini sculpture to a museum. One night, his daughter Nicole finds Dermott carrying one of the many paintings in their house (which happens to be forged). He says he is a high society burglar, and she shoots him in the arm with a pistol so old it does almost no harm. Knowing that if she reports him there will be an investigation and the family's secret destroyed, she offers to drive the man home. Later, she and her father learn that his sculpture is going to have a mandatory authenticity test, which leaves them both devastated. In order to save her father, Nicole enlists Dermott's help to steal the sculpture. He accepts after some hesitation. They spend the night in a storage closet in the museum, during which Dermott discloses that he knew about the Cellini forgery and explains his motivation for concealing his knowledge, conveying with a kiss; he and Nicolle express their love for each other. Dermott twice uses a boomerang to set off the high tech alarm, thus confusing the guards into thinking it is defective. After the second time, the guards deactivate the alarm. The two take the sculpture (replacing it with a brandy bottle for the guards to notice!) and walk out amidst all the confusion about the disappearance. With the family saved, the Dermott reveals he is actually a private detective who specializes in art fraud and will not take her father in if he gives up his crime. Nicole and the "thief" follow through with their love and get married.

External links

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