Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

Kodie Bird True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Wizard-8 It won't take long into watching "Once a Thief" for viewers to say to themselves, "I've seen this all before." Who hasn't seen this same basic story about a struggling ex-criminal pushed by circumstances to rejoin his old gang and pull off one last job? It's been done many times in movies and television shows since this movie was made. In fact, I am confident it had been done many times before this movie was made. You'll be able to predict every major plot turn long before it happens.So the question comes up as to whether the movie manages to bring in some fresh elements. Well, there is the fact that the ex-criminal, played by Alain Delon, is not totally sympathetic. That's different, though he does enough negative stuff that at times you'll wonder why the movie thinks we should be interested in him. The most interesting thing about the movie, however, is the direction by Ralph Nelson. Though the movie is set in San Francisco, the movie has a strong European style and feel throughout. Possibly this was due to the influence of the French producers in this American/French co-production. This different style does give the movie some interest... but ultimately, not enough to earn it a recommendation.

MARIO GAUCI In the wake of having watched Alain Delon in Joseph Losey's THE ASSASSINATION OF TROTSKY (1972), I decided to check out three other vehicles of his I had taped off TV over the last few months – beginning with this one, which emerges to be just as pretentious as Losey's film! Best described as a beatnik noir, we've seen this film's story told a million times before – that of a criminal who can't escape his past, dogged as much by old associates as by an obsessive police nemesis. Consequently, director Nelson and cinematographer Robert Burks (best-known for his longtime collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock) handle the generally clichéd material for more than it's worth – even if my viewing was somewhat compromised by the film being panned-and-scanned.Delon and Ann-Margret make for a handsome couple - although she occasionally tries too hard and her histrionics seem more at home in a Tennessee Williams melodrama; Van Heflin is appropriately world-weary as the aging cop, Jack Palance is typically intense as a crime boss and Delon's elder brother. The rest of Palance's gang is made up of the odd-looking and memorably creepy John Davis Chandler and Tony Musante – while Jeff Corey appears as Heflin's irate superior. The film's screenwriter Zekial Marko (adapting his own novel) is featured in an unintentionally hilarious supporting role as a druggie who shares a cell with Delon – we follow his case intermittently throughout (for no very good reason other than to justify the similarly hapless Delon's pursuit of crime) via newspaper clippings, denoting Marko's conviction to the gas chamber and eventually his suicide! The film is aided by a jazzy score courtesy of Lalo Schifrin, who seemed to specialize in crime/police dramas. The elaborate heist half-way through is an expected highlight, which then leads to a predictably downbeat and body-strewn climax.

sol **SOME SPOILERS** Late, for 1965 that is, 1940's like film noir crime drama that has an ex-convict who spent 18 months in San Quentin for armed robbery trying to go straight. With his gangster brother having other ideas for him that could very well send him either to the San Quintin death chamber or the San Francisco City morgue.Eddie Pedak, Alan Delon, has been saving money from his job at a meat processing plant on the docks to buy himself a fishing boat and be independent for the first time in his life. Having both a beautiful wife Kristine, Ann-Margaret, and cute six-year-old daughter Kathy, Tammy Locke, things have never looked better for Eddie since he was released from prison back in 1956 when he was 21. Thats until his older brother Walter, Jack Palance, came back into Eddie's life. It's very obvious right from the start that Eddie had been set up by Walter and his gang in a robbery/murder in San Francisco's Chinatown. Were totally kept in the dark to who committed the crime and then almost within minutes of the murder Eddie shows up driving the very same car, a Ford Model-T, and wearing the same sheepskin jacket that the faceless killer wore.SFPD police inspector Vito, Van Heflin, on the scene of the killing immediately suspects that Eddie Pedak was the murderer since he fit the murderer profile and description. It also comes out that Eddie shot Vito some time ago during a robbery, where he was eventually found innocent by a jury, that lodged a .38 slug in his gut This severally effected his digestive system, making it virtually impossible for Vito to eat his favorite Italian and Mexican food. Inspt. Vito Picking up Eddie for questioning at his place of employment causes Eddie to eventually loses his job. This forced Eddie to have his gorgeous and well-stacked wife Kristine, the 36-23-36 Ann-Margaret, work at the Big Al Night-Club as a scantily clad cocktail waitress. It's there where Kristine ends up making more money in one night then Eddie made all week by him hauling and stacking hunks of meat at the dockside factory.Feeling less then a man doing housework where at the same time Kristine was bringing home the beacon Eddie goes to Big Al's just to see what his wife was doing and that did it for him. Seeing customers groping and ogling at the beautiful Kristine and stuffing bills, some as much as $20.00, into her waitress outfit had Eddie throw a fit and drag the very shocked and embarrassed Kristine out of the place. Eddie is now determined more then ever to work for his brother Walter. Eddie together with his two fellow thugs Sargatanas & Shoswstein, John David Chandler & Ton Musante, planned the knocking off of his former employer of a cool one million dollars worth of platinum locked up in the company safe.The well planned robbery turns out to be a smashing success but the greed among the robbers, in double-crossing each other, in the end does them all in. With the crazed Sargatanas blasting away funeral director co-conspirator and explosive expert John Ling, Yuki Shimoda, as soon as they were about to make their getaway.Walter doing some double-crossing of his own takes off, together with his kid-brother Eddie, with the valuable platinum bars hiding them in a tractor-trailer together with the getaway car. Finding Walter at the prearranged hideout that he's to meet Eddie Sargatanas blows him away, off screen. To make sure that Eddie and his wife and little girl don't check out of town, with the platinum bars,Sargatanas kidnap's little Kathy holding her hostage until Eddie comes clean by telling him and his fellow hood Shoewstein, after having his front teeth kicked out by Eddie earlier in the movie, where the loot is hidden.Knowing that the crazed and double-crossing Sargatanas can't be trusted in returning Kathy back safe and sound Eddie reluctantly goes to Inspt. Vito's house and makes a deal with him to captured both Sargatanas and Shoewstein at the docks. It's there where the final totally unexpected and explosive scene in the film "Once a Thief" takes place.

jt1999 The beginning of this picture, from the jazzy opening credits and into the next reel or so, is rather engaging. At its best, it is stylish in that French New Wave Meets American Beatnik kind of way, frequent in popular culture of the time. The dialogue is peppered with hepcat slang and frank references to narcoticsand so-called "deviant" sexuality. This is daring stuff for a 1965 release from MGM. Beautiful widescreen black-and-white photography from Robert Burks,who had by then done several Hitchcock films. The steady hand of directorRalph Nelson keeps the picture moving, often punctuated by moments ofunexpected brutality. PC this is not! The story itself is popcorn stuff, perhaps best not explored too deeply, but a great cast helps to enliven the material. Bytoday's standards, the character played by Ann-Margret would never bedepicted in such a fashion as seen here. (At one point, she apologizes afterbeing slapped around.) But hey, she's under the seductive spell of Alain Delon, a Frenchman playing an Italian. No, it's not "The Asphalt Jungle". Neither is it a total waste of time, as it's often described as being. It's a good example of a mid- '60s studio potboiler, capably and professionally (and sometimes artfully)handled by all parties concerned. If your bag lies elsewhere, go on and fetch it, then. I'm rewinding the tape so I'll be ready to watch "Once a Thief" again soon.