Description

Brilliantly capturing the oppressive paranoia of Franz Kafka's classic novel, Orson Welles' "The Trial" is the story of a young clerk, Josef K., who is arrested, tried and finally executed--all without ever knowing his crime. Welles filmed this baroque work of genius in a deserted Belle Epoque railway station in Paris. The strange setting perfectly captures the bizarre and nightmarish world of Kafka's mythical totalitarian state. ... Read more

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An appealing, free-floating lunacy fuels What's New Pussycat?,and there's enough of it bubbling around to carry the movie past its manydefects. The cast is like a collection of terribly attractive people stumblingover each other at a disorganized cocktail party--they aren't always witty, andsome of them are drunk, but there's enough going on to keep you distracted.Peter O'Toole plays a swinging London womanizer seeking help for his addiction,who makes the mistake of consulting one Dr. Fritz Fassbender (Peter Sellers), ademented psychoanalyst. Woody Allen made his movie debut here and wrote thescript (much altered, to Allen's chagrin, in the filmmaking process). This movieand Casino Royale--which also features Sellers, Allen, Ursula Andress,and a Burt Bacharach song--are overstuffed '60s artifacts, brimming with modchaos. Alas, neither film is as funny as it should be. --Robert Horton ... Read more

Reviews (24)

Typical sixties flick
Funniest movie ever made, besides Casino Royale and
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. I used it to write a grad psychology paper. Got an A. Everybody in the movie has a diagnosible mental illness. Ursula Andress (pictured on the cover) is a nymphomaniac. Peter Sellers (also on the cover) is bipolar. Peter O'Toole is Narcissistic. Capucine is Histronic Personality Disorder. Romy is Borderline Personality Disorder.
The wife is Bulemic (she is 300 pounds and wears a viking helmet with horns, chestplate and spear). Woody Allen is Dysthymic Personality Disorder. (We used to call this disorder Neurotic). There is also a pyromaniac. Funnier than Analyze This.

Old Cat
What's New Pussycat is a dubious start for the great Woody Allan, but it is an important film because after this disaster was released Woody vowed to never let anyone again direct a film he had written.What's New Pussycat starts off with a lot of promise.The animated titles with the song of the same name as the film sung by a young Tom Jones sets you up for a fun time.The opening scene with Peter Seller's as a mad psychiatrist fighting his Wagnarian wife is very funny.Then What's New Pussycat goes off the rails.Scenes of two drunks slurring their words and staggering around waking up the neighborhood are slow, boring and as unfunny as the real thing.Peter O Toole and Peter Sellers just go through the motions.The scenes with Woody Allan are good, but these moments don't really fit the film.What's New Pussycat goes about an hour too long.
Although the director clearly focusses his attention on madcap lunacy rather than the plot, it is interesting to wonder what Woody actually intended What's New Pussycat to be.The film as it stands is so different to anything else he worked on (disregarding Casino Royale, because his input on that was minimal).If he had directed this film I suspect scenes would have been tightened, the dialogue more realistically delivered, the slapstick would have been staggered and not overwhelm everything else, and Peter Sellers, if he had any respect for Woody as a first time director (which is doubtful), may have beem induced to really shine.Even so, I can't see What's New Pussycat being among his best work, but it would be a lot less boring than what it is now.
Although I have panned this film I gave it two stars because some scenes are genuinely good and it is of historic significance.

Yes, a forty-year old movie blah, blah, blah
I love reading reviews by my God and Goddess-like contemporaries. It's so easy to pass judgement on distant bits of culture from our high and holy PC Olympus! I imagine if the Puritans had had the opportunity to write movie reviews they'd have had about the same tone.

Back in the Sixties (which, oddly, had a history other than that involving Viet Nam, Civil Rights, and Feminism) folks were shaking themselves loose of the straightjacket that had been on them since, at least, the Great Depression, at most, the 13th Century. People wanted fun, color, and wackiness, and they enjoyed getting it. Why else would big no-nonsense film companies interested in profits sink dough into plotless wonders like this film and, say, Casino Royale?

This is kind of a fascist age. Folks of all political stripes are into no-compromise black and white ethics. Everyone's got an opinion. Everyone knows what's right for you. A movie like this is just great for those of us who find all this SERIOUSNESS tiresome, just as it was great for our kindred sisters and brothers back in the Sixties who were sick of their parents lecturing them (Nowadays it's our kids that sound like our dopey tight-[censored] parents--how did we let that happen?). There's no relevancy here, no addressing of pressing social issues--it's just mindless incorrect stupid fun. Buy it and hide it before the young'uns get around to burning it. Watch it while half-listening for the sound of jack boots on the front porch.

this is my fave of all time
One has to enter into the spirit of the thing: this is a B-movie and doesn't aspire to be anything else.I love the ambiance, the actors, and many of the quirky lines.One of the reviewers said that beautiful women were throwing themselves at Allen, Sellers, and O'Toole, but it's really only O'Toole (it may be the only film where Allen is rejected as much as he would be in real life were he not rich and famous).I admit that as a feminist I have to suspend certain principles, but it's too fun not to love it regardless.My favorite line is the stupidly charming "You are a monster and a monster in that order" by the long-haired psychoanalyst played by Sellers.This is the only movie where Sellers doesn't annoy me to death and is more and more the only one in which I can watch Woody Allen without wanting to strangle him.Not Romy Schneider's best work but always fascinating to look at.

The Ridiculous and the Sublime
Maybe sublime is too strong a word. This is one mess of a movie. It's like a nerdy kid trying desperately to be cool. Most of the jokes are unbelievably juvenile and even lame, and it's often obvious many of the cast members realized they were in a piece of crap and decided to at least enjoy themselves-- which actually helps.

That said, there are moments (and I mean moments) that make it worth watching. Paula Prentiss steals the show from everyone, there are some laugh-out-loud lines in the picture and some of Peter O'Toole's reactions are priceless. Another good scene is the one Peter Sellers and Woody Allen share. Finally, there may even be one emblematic shot in it too, during the getaway at the end of the picture.

What's new Pussycat is endearingly goofy and AWFUL, but I'm looking forward to it coming out on DVD. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Great movie, but truly lousy MGM DVD transfer
This '60s heist movie sparkles, dazzles, and charms with its strong international cast, story adapted from an Eric Ambler mystery novel, and typically great direction from Jules (Rafifi) Dassin. Dassin gets a truly captivating performance from his wife Melina Mercouri as a thief obsessed with stealing the Topkapi emeralds, and an Academy Award-winning comic turn from Peter Ustinov. This was my favorite movie of all time when watching it on tv as a child. I waited a while to see it on DVD. Sadly, MGM seems to have transferred the movie through a vat of mud. The source print is faded and looks lousy. The movie is great, as is the theme song.

Wonderfully entertaining, with great Ustinov performance
One of my favorite films, and quite possibly the most entertaining caper movie of all time. A jewell thief (Melina Mercouri) has her heart set on a fabulous emerald-encrusted dagger. The priceless object is being kept at the high-security Topkapi Museum in Istanbul. Mercouri enlists the aid of sometime lover (and professional thief) Maximilian Schell to devise and execute an intricate plan of stealing the dagger. Schell assembles a team that includes Robert Morley as an inventor and electronics expert, and Peter Ustinov as a small-time con man who doesn't realize that he's part of the scheme. Ustinov is persuaded to spy on Mercouri's group by Turkish authorities who think the gang members are terrorists, but he is eventually made aware of the actual intentions of the thieves. The first few minutes of TOPKAPI may lead you to believe that you're in store for one of those hopelessly fluffy "comedies" of the 60's. But don't be fooled. From the moment the jovially frantic music score is played over the opening credits, rest assured that you're about to be treated to a light-hearted, fast-paced movie that expertly combines humor, suspense, and thrills. The international cast is great, but Peter Ustinov is especially delightful to watch in the role that won him the 1964 Oscar for best supporting actor. As Arthur Simpson, a shifty yet sympathetic character who gets used by just about everyone in the film, Ustinov easily steals the movie (although Akim Tamiroff also has his share of funny moments as a drunken cook). This film has all the elements for a first-rate piece of entertainment: an engaging cast, exotic locales, good dialogue, and artful direction by Jules Dassin whose earlier work in RIFIFI partly inspired this movie. TOPKAPI is a wonderfully entertaining motion picture that should appeal to everyone.

DVD Widescreen Transfer Is Perfect
I must elaborate more on the reviewer who said that the transfer to DVD looked like it had been dragged through a vat of mud. I had the movie on VHS tape and knew what to expect of it. The reviewer may have only noted the first 6-7 minutes of the movie which I would call a dream sequence with shades of different colors around the screen. Once this sequence is over, the movie is normal and the transfer to DVD which I rented was perfect. The movie was just as it is on my VHS tape but of better quality, of course.

Topkapi
This is in the end a good caper movie and maybe worth watching because its possible a lot its elements have been emulated in other films like the Pink Panther, Mission:Impossible and Entrapment.
It is a jewel theft caper involving a hypersensitive floor security system, where you drop in from the roof. I am not giving anything away that isn't in the trailer. But it is stuff you have now seen many times before. The gymnastics and plotting of how that is carried out is the variance. There is some pretty good tension in pulling off the crime.
As in any movie like this, whether you like it depends a lot more on whether you like the characters. And this is the point where the film gets a little iffy for me. This is the first Melina Mercouri I have seen. So I don't have the perspective of years prior knowing what a great beauty she was. I am going to get in trouble for calling it as I see it her. Melina Mercouri is an attractive enough older woman but well past her prime and trying and failing to hide it behind hair died from silver gray to blonde and heavy mascara and eyeshadow. But perhaps she is merely past her prime and just unapologetic and sassy about it.
The effect is the same. She is a little grotesque.Maximillian Schell on the other hand is a truly handsome and suave as the organizer of the plot.
Peter Ustinov is cute. As a fairly early role you see him here developing a lot of his most popular affectations that will serve him well in future roles. This production seems a little low budget and doesn't show off his distinctive voice and mannerisms as well as a film with more deft camera direction and better sound can. The stalwart British character actor Robert Morely as the inventor is very good. Also on the team is a brutish strong man who seems to have little purpose in the film who is partnered with an acrobat who cleverly mimes most of his part because he is a mute.
Ordinarily I don't have much trouble making allowances for the style of films of the various decades but Topkapi has a style that to me seems particularly dated and tips the hand of its minimal budget badly. There are many filler shots of the marketplace and locals of Istanbul that aren't particularly interesting and slow the pace of the film down. Also the image and sound is of marginal quality and frequently dubbed though it is an english speaking film.Its not out of synch but it has that odd unnatural feel to it. If you mind has the mental alacrity to make allowances for this its a clever enough film to keep you entertained. But I can't imagine anyone under 25 raised on modern production values not being a little antsy and impatient deciphering some of the slightly muffled heavy accents of the international cast.

Certainly a better film than Entrapment. I think overall the film is merely OK. Either of the Ocean's Eleven films does has a more entertaining ensemble cast and are more fun to watch in this genre.

rififi....
A band of thieves, assembled by a deliciously intent Mercouri, attempts to steal a fabulous emerald-encrusted dagger from the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul. The utimate theft is depicted in a long sequence reminiscent of his earlier heist scene-but this time with considerably more levity. Dassin assembled a flawless cast of charming rogues and charlatans, including Peter Ustinov in an especially humorous performance that earned him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. If you are not a WT, then it is a very nice movie for you.... ... Read more

Description

Paris at the beginning of the 18th century.The adventurer, Cartouche, an ardent advocate of fairness, honor, and liberty, opposes the omnipotence of the King.He fights with his compatriots for the rights of the "common people" and against all those who try to repress them.A romantic adventure in the best tradition of swashbuckler films. ... Read more

Description

Agnes, a nun, follows the convent to the beach for a swim in the ocean.She soon abandons the group and takes off on an adventurous romp. When she meets Lisa, a fun-loving hooker, she thinks that perhaps being a prostitute would better suit her.But after several hilarious mishaps as a "working girl" she realizes she must choose between a habit and high heels ... Read more