Underplayed Gems
The whole movie catalogue

Films and series, searchable by what they are

← Back to the shop

Topkapi (1964)

Topkapi poster
Directed by
Jules Dassin
Genre
comedy film, heist film, crime film
Country
United States
Runtime
1h 55m
Rated
NR
Rating
6.5 of 10 from 215 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb

How it feels

A small-time con artist is recruited by a gang of international art thieves to help steal a jeweled dagger from Istanbul's Topkapı Palace. At the same time, he is forced to spy on them for the Turkish police.

lightheartedslyly comicslow-burntensewrysuspensefulcaper-stylemildly chaotic

What happens

Topkapi is a 1964 American heist comedy film produced and directed by Jules Dassin from a screenplay by Monja Danischewsky, based on the 1962 novel The Light of Day by Eric Ambler. Produced by Filmways and distributed by United Artists, the film stars Melina Mercouri, Peter Ustinov, Maximilian Schell, Robert Morley, and Akim Tamiroff. The plot follows a small-time con artist who gets roped into helping a gang of international art thieves steal an emerald-encrusted dagger from Istanbul's Topkapı Palace, while he is simultaneously forced to spy on them for the Turkish police. The music score was by Manos Hadjidakis, the cinematography by Henri Alekan, and the costume design by Denny Vachlioti. For his performance, Ustinov won his second Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? Tell the Catbot what you feel like watching and it picks from the whole catalogue, or browse by genre, country and year.

Lists: Korean thrillers worth the evening · Anime films beyond Studio Ghibli · Slow films for a rainy night · Horror that unsettles instead of startling · Series you can finish in a weekend · Nordic crime worth the subtitles · Good films that end in under 90 minutes · Documentaries that play like thrillers

Loading movies…

What should I watch?