'TOPKAPI'............JULES STEALS THE JEWELS.........

Topkapi (1964)   The BQ desperately needed pure escapism this weekend and nothing filled that need better then this bubbly, brightly colored confection.......2 hours of cinematic cotton candy.....

            Director Jules Dassin, while in exile from the Hollywood blacklist, made the world sit up and take notice in 1955 with his gritty black-and-white heist classic "Rififi", as close to an instant classic as any director could get.

             Heist-wise, he topped himself with "Topkapi" 9 years later, in which a motley crew of international thieves plot to swipe of jewel-encrusted dagger off a glass-encased mannequin in Istanbul's heavily alarmed Topkapi Palace museum.

             The big difference........Dassin turned this caper into a dazzlingly Technicolored comedic party, set to the insanely catchy music of Manos Hadjidakis.

              You can immediately sense Dassin's exuberant joy in shooting his first film in color......the movie's opening sequence wallows in a riot of primary hues......and further propelled by the infectious laughter of Dassin's wife Melina Mercouri, playing an ebullient jewel thief. Mercouri sails through the film as if it's one big party (which it is) and invites the audience to join her.

               Mercouri and her fellow suave criminal mastermind (Maximillian Schell) take a calculated risk in adding a woeful, sad sack patsy to their den of thieves, in order to sneak their caper gear across the Turkish border.......

              And this cues the arrival of the film's MVP and Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actor, Peter Ustinov. Playing the perplexed patsy, Ustinov unleashes a non-stop stream of under-his-breath asides guaranteed to keep you laughing and smiling throughout the movie's entirety.

              The big caper itself, as in "Rififi" is an extended, silent, stunningly staged and edited piece of work.......which you'll immediately recognize as the inspiration for all future clever heist movies, including Tom Cruises's acrobatic contortions in "Mission Impossible".

               You simply can't have a better time at the movies then kicking back with this one......(and before we forget to mention them, there's bonus laughs generated by those larger than life hams,Robert Morley and Akim Tamiroff.)

               This one stole our hearts back in '64 and still captures us today.  5 stars (*****), a FIND OF FINDS.....and still a shinier jewel than the ones on that dagger.