The Thief Who Came to Dinner (1973)

hyped garbage

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Although "The Thief Who Came to Dinner" has been branded a comedy, it really isn't - it's more of a drama with some lighter moments. The lighter moments, incidentally, aren't really all that amusing, possibly because they try to be extremely realistic at the same time instead of doing something absurd or satirical. The movie isn't that much more successful in the drama portion. There are some interesting ideas floated around, like the fact that the title character has an interest in being in high society, but these ideas don't really get worked on that much. The performances are okay; Ryan O'Neal does make his thief character somewhat likable (until the climatic museum heist, where he hurts people), and Warren Oates gives another solid performance, though he isn't give that much of substance to do. In the end, the movie is pretty forgettable, so much so that this die hard movie buff hadn't even heard of this movie until it appeared recently on Turner Classic Movie's schedule.

Ryan O'Neil is one of those actors who, given the right part, can hit it out of the ballpark. Like his con artist character in "Paper Moon", the thief is outwardly a comely young man, a charmer, even a gentleman. That's what thieves are supposed to be. They don't kill people, or use violence (at least these types of thieves never do in the movies!). They have wit, humor, and even a little humility, which is what makes their underlying darker side so much more terrifying, enigmatic, and also intriguing. These thieves don't hold up the corner liquor shops in the seedy side of Brooklyn or ransack cheap apartments in New Jersey. They procure their desired objects from jewelry shops in the upper-crust of downtown Manhattan or the large brick houses of the Brookline area of Boston. This is the only kind of thief O'Neal could swing at with a chance of hitting a homer, and he does.Webster (O'Neal) is nicknamed "the Chess Burglar" as he begins playing a hypothetical chess game with the police, leaving a chess piece and a move with every robbery. He mainly heists jewels from people who don't really need them, like a modern-day Robin Hood. He does his game, both the robbing and the chess, with deft finesse and surgical precision. The police, unable to figure out who their thief really is, at one point hire a professional chess master to oppose the nameless thief-artist to try and create a profile of him based on his moves. At one point, even the chess master comes to his wits end trying to deal with the chess burglar. You may find that a chess master and cunning thief have more in common than you might have expected...This is a thoroughly enjoyable movie and certainly one of O'Neal's best performances. (I always thought O'Neal would have been perfect as "The Great Gatsby".) This movie deserves DVD treatment, considering many god-awful Hollywood offerings have been released from this era. (I mean, are there people who would actually buy a copy of Airport 1975 or "The Towering Inferno"?) This is a highly intelligent and yet simultaneously quite entertaining film that does exactly what it wants to do, with enough twists and turns that do not foreshadow a very interesting and unexpected ending. And the script was by Walter Hill who made a career of raising lowlifes to the big screen. Please vote for this movie for DVD release.

Webster McGee (superbly realized by Ryan O'Neal) is bored into stupor by his career and life, so much so that his wife (Jill Clayburgh, sparkling in a minor but memorable appearance) left him, and he has come to agree with her for doing so. He also has decided that what all work, all financial endeavors, and all life comes down to is -- thievery. He decides to be true to himself and his newfound convictions and to become "an honest thief." To set his plan into action, he must find and control an unwilling accomplice (terrific performance by Charles Cioffi), and find two cohorts to dispose of the merchandise (hilariously sanctimonious Ned Beatty and street-not-so-wise Gregory Sierra) for profit. That's the premise, and Yorkin adds some incongruous bits along the way for spice and fun. He seduces and is seduced by Jacqueline Bisset, and meets a man who is almost his match in insurance investigator Dave Riley (Warren Oates -- a multifaceted and brilliant performance). Austin Pendelton has an off-the-wall role for comic relief that's perhaps a bit too silly for the otherwise sophisticated quasi-European anti-establishment satirical tone taken by the rest of the movie's tone. But, you have to allow Bud Yorkin one of these, don't you? There's also a fun car chase (sequence perhaps directed by co-writer and later action-director Walter Hill??), and one more ironic twist. The second half of the movie is dominated by the engaging cat-and-mouse game between McGee and Riley.I have now watched this movie three times and find it more enjoyable each time. The imagery in the first-third slows the pace a bit, but stick with it, and I think you will be well rewarded.

In 1973, the best chess programs running on the fastest supercomputers could barely play a passable game of chess, much less challenge a master level player such as the Austin Pendleton character would be (newspaper chess columnist for the Houston Chronicle).