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| Source:Joan Collins Archive- Hollywood and English Goddess Joan Collins, in Seven Thieves. |
"This exciting heist caper from 1960 features Joan with a cast of Hollywood heavyweights including Edward G Robinson, Eli Wallach & Rod Steiger.. Read more in my film archive here!!
60's Focus : SEVEN THIEVES .. 1960 .. FOX ..
"A shrewd and classy caper film set amid the beautiful cities of Nice and Monte Carlo and the glorious French Riviera. Elder professor, Theo, tells young criminal, Paul, that he wants one more triumph before ending his highly controversial career. Even though he is reluctant, Paul takes physical charge of the criminal operation which mastermind Theo has meticulously planned; Theo has just finished what he terms as a "three year rest," meaning a prison term. Melanie, a stripper, and her mentor, saxophonist Poncho, are also recruited onto the seven person team for the event. The master plan calls for the robbery of the Grand Casino of Monte Carlo on the night of the Governor's Ball. When the caper moves into full swing, obstacles abound. Will the seven thieves be able to pull it off?"
Just to be personal for a minute: I've been thinking about this movie a lot lately, because I really love Joan Collins the entertainer. The great actress, the great wit, etc. The beautiful baby-face, voice, keen intelligence, and honesty as well.
She reminds me a lot of Ava Gardner and Elizabeth Taylor who all had those qualities as well. I have 3-4 Joan Collins movies on DVD and got the urge to see one of her movies and was also thinking about Ocean's Eleven from 1960, (the original and best Ocean's) and decided to look at Seven Thieves again. Saw the movie about two weeks ago and saw this blog piece about it on Joan's blog and that is why I'm writing about it now.
I swear other than maybe Brigitte Bardot, Joan Collins must have been the cutest woman in France when this movie was made. She's her always beautiful, adorable, and witty self in this movie. And she relates very well with Rod Steiger. (The lead on the caper in the movie) If you're familiar with Ocean's Eleven 1960 and like that movie, you'll like Seven Thieves as well. Except this time in Seven Thieves the beautiful lead actress (Joan Collins) has a major role in the movie. Angie Dickinson had an important, but fairly small role in Ocean's. You only see Angie for maybe 10 minutes in Ocean's.
Joan is not just the lead actress in Seven Thieves, but she's in most of the movie. She's part of the planning of the caper and in on the caper, as well as escape later on in the movie. With Edward Robinson playing the mastermind of the caper and Rod Steiger as his director sort of like a head coach for a football team reporting to a general manager.
If you like a movie full of stars, a star-studded affair (so to speak) then you'll also like Seven Thieves. Ed Robinson as the mastermind of the caper. Rod Steiger playing the manager of it. Eli Wallach as the top lieutenant. And of course Joan Collins as the beautiful and adorable distraction and serving as the lookout so the men can get into the safe and get the money out of it before they're caught.
And again to get back to Ocean's Eleven where in Ocean's they crew there is in Las Vegas to rob several casinos all on the same night, which granted lets say takes a lot more balls and more ambitious (to be cleaner) Seven Thieves takes place on South France on the Mediterranean. Where all the members of the crew are from somewhere other than France.
But the crew other than Rod Steiger has been there for a while specifically to case the joint (so to speak) and prepare for this job. And like in Ocean's where the whole crew is from somewhere other than Las Vegas and even Nevada, the crew in Seven Thieves are not even French.
I believe Seven Thieves is a great caper heist type movie. One of those movies where the brains of the operation (played by Ed Robinson) where the crew that is put together is working with each other for the very first time and you have the lead character as far as the man running the operation (played by Rod Steiger) who doesn't know anyone in the crew other than the man who hired him and is put in a tough situation. Doesn't know who he can trust and what each member brings to the operation. And keep in mind all the crew members are criminals. Which is never the most trust worthy bunch. (To say the least) Not even criminals tend to trust criminals.
And the manager of the crew is having to get to know all his members while the process of the caper is put in place. The preparation and then the execution of the caper. And also any movie that has Ed Robinson, Eli Wallach, Joan Collins, and Rod Steiger as well, you're going to get a lot of good humor in. (The nature of the characters) Which makes for a very entertaining movie.
