Thief of Hearts (1984)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Great Film overall

good back-story, and good acting

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This film starts out with a drive over the Golden Gate Bridge and into the City of San Francisco with fantastic music in the background and through out the entire picture. John Getz (Ray Davis), " A Day without a Mexican" plays the role as a husband who writes children's books and has reached the top of his field. Ray is married to Barbara Williams,(Mickey Davis),"Forever Evil" who is getting rather unsatisfied with her marriage as her husband is always at his typewriter and never in bed where she wants him. Steven Bauer,(Scott Muller) "The Lost City", actually runs into Mickey Davis and things progress to the boiling point between the both of them. David Caruso,(Buddy Calamara),"Blue City", plays the role of a slime ball, who is a very evil character and looks quite young in 1984. Great tale with plenty of twists and turns and I simply Love The Ending. Enjoy

I was 13, or maybe 14 when I saw this movie... I was just watching movies my aunt had rented, and.... I gotta tell you.... this was the very first time I EVER had a sexual feeling in my life... at 13, mind you... I thought of going on MTV wearing a shirt that said "I Love Steven Bauer"..... (that was going to be a true mission of mine...really!)... I was determined to meet that guy... but I grew up, I'm now 35, single... (by choice, mind you...)... but I still think back to when that movie made me wonder what was going on with my body, and why it felt so good to rock back and forth a bit.(lovely)... I've kept a diary since I was in 3rd grade.... and still have them all.

The film tells a story of a burglar who falls in love with one of his victims whilst doing her house one night. After stealing her portrait and personal memoires, he proceeds to "learn" more and more about the victim until he decides to come into personal contact. Passing himself off as a Company Director, he slowly seduces the victim and this is facilitated by her failing marriage. Inevitably, events catch up with the thief as his partner in crime goes to desperate measures to eliminate this side-distraction. I enjoyed this movie for a number of reasons but most of all, I thought it had a fantastic eighties soundtrack throughout. The story itself is not wonderfully exciting, but the fantasy of a burglar falling for one of his victims and using his psychological advantage to seduce her is quite interesting. A sense of compassion is felt for the central character as he strives to live a fantasy of his own making that slowly starts to disintegrate due to his own dark life. John Caruso puts in a disturbing and powerful performance as the drugged-crazed partner who takes matters into his own hands.

Though I do like this film, I found the concept immensely disturbing. Being a private person (you don't see my NAME on this, do you?), I found the idea that anyone could so completely invade a life absolutely terrifying. In spite of a few holes, the film works, chiefly because the characters enmesh the audience in their feelings. Steven Bauer is incredibly underrated as an actor and, while I have seen stronger performances from him, he's very good as the enamoured thief in search of a way out and Barbara Williams is credible as the neglected wife enchanted by the mystery man. Let's not leave out John Getz, another unexplainably underrated performer, as the self-absorbed husband. If you can ignore the flashy 80s style, the film is a fascinating study of obsession. Warning: it definitely deserves its R rating for unnecessary full nudity.