Topkapi (film)
Encyclopedia
Topkapi is a heist film
made by Filmways
Pictures and distributed by United Artists
. It was produced and directed
by the emigre American film director, Jules Dassin
. The film is based on Eric Ambler
's novel The Light of Day (1962), adapted as a screenplay by Monja Danischewsky
.
The film stars Melina Mercouri
(who later became Dassin's wife), Maximilian Schell
, Peter Ustinov
, Robert Morley
, Gilles Ségal and Akim Tamiroff
.
The music score was by Manos Hadjidakis
, the cinematography by Henri Alekan
and the costume design by Theoni V. Aldredge
.
) visiting Istanbul. She sees a traveling fair which features replicas of treasures from the Topkapi Palace
, and says enigmatically to herself that now she sees how "it" can be done. Next she cases the Topkapi itself, where she is clearly fascinated by the emerald-encrusted dagger of Sultan
Mahmud I
.
After leaving Turkey, she recruits her ex-lover, Swiss master-criminal Walter Harper (Maximilian Schell
), to help her plan the theft of the dagger. Harper insists that they work only with "amateurs"—individuals with no police record. This includes Cedric Page (Robert Morley
), an eccentric British master of all things mechanical, including security systems, as well as Giulio the Human Fly (Ségal), a mute acrobat whose role will be to steal the dagger while suspended from above, thus defeating the floor-mounted alarm.
More surprisingly, Harper and Lipp recruit Arthur Simon Simpson (Peter Ustinov
)—a small-time hustler of Anglo-Egyptian parentage, now operating in Kavala
, Greece
, where he peddles fake antiques to the tourists and offers to show them the local nightlife. Without revealing his true purpose, Harper hires Simpson to drive a luxury American convertible into Turkey and deliver it to a hotel in Istanbul.
Unknown to Simpson, the car contains hidden explosives and firearms that the thieves plan to use in their burglary - they have set up the hapless Simpson as driver in case the border police search the car.
At the Turkish border, the police find that Simpson's (Egyptian) passport is out of date. They search the car, find the firearms and grill Simpson. The Turkish Secret Police deduce that the gang are plotting an assassination at a forthcoming military parade. Under threat of a death sentence, Simpson is recruited to spy on Harper and Lipp.
As part of the police ruse, Page, picking up the car in Istanbul, is told that only Simpson, who imported the car, is legally permitted to drive it in Turkey. Thus the gang are saddled with the "schmo" Harper had intended to dump.
As instructed, Simpson leaves notes in discarded cigarette boxes for his police handlers - but, being ignorant of the conspirators' true intentions, most of his intelligence is worthless: he informs the police, based on a conversation with a drunken cook (Tamiroff), that the group are Russian agents.
When the gang member who was to have supported Giulio from above during the robbery injures his hands, the gang reluctantly bring Simpson into the plot as a substitute. He in turn confesses to them that they are being watched by the police. Harper in response revises his plan and accelerates the timing of the burglary, arranging to give their police tails the slip at a big wrestling match.
That evening, while Lipp distracts the keeper of a nearby lighthouse so that Page can surreptitiously prevent his light from giving the burglars' position away, Harper, Simpson and Giulio break into the museum's treasury, steal the dagger, replace it with a replica, and exit without triggering the alarm.
The gang successfully deliver the dagger to Joseph, proprietor of the traveling fair display, who is assigned to smuggle the dagger out of the country as part of his collection of replicas. Unnoticed by the thieves, though, during the robbery a bird has flown through the window by which they entered, and is trapped inside when they close the window on their way out.
As part of Harper's plan to outsmart the police, he and his fellow gang members now go to police headquarters, to "reveal" their discovery of weapons behind a panel in the door of the car. When the police inspector asks Simpson to vouch for Harper and Lipp's whereabouts that day, Simpson throws in his lot with the thieves and backs up their alibi.
However, the alarm at the Topkapi is now triggered by the trapped bird, and soon the inspector is phoned with this news. In parallel, Simpson's final notes to the police, now on the inspector's desk, provide a connection (which Simpson himself had not understood) between the gang and the traveling fair which shows replicas of the Topkapi treasures. Putting two and two together, the inspector confidently informs Harper and the others that he now knows why they came to Turkey, because "a little bird told me".
The film closes with the gang in a Turkish prison. Irrepressible, Lipp begins to tell them of her fascination with the Russian Imperial Crown Jewels in the Kremlin...
According to Jules Dassin, he originally planned to cast Peter Sellers
as Simpson, but Sellers refused to work with Maximilian Schell, who he claimed had the reputation for being difficult. Dassin was not prepared to dispense with Schell, and so cast Ustinov in place of Sellers.
Although he played one of the movie's leading roles, Peter Ustinov
was nominated in 1964 for—and won—the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
rather than the Academy Award for Best Actor
for his portrayal of Simpson. In an interview given on Ustinov's death in 2004, Maximilian Schell
surmised that this may have been due to the misconception that a servile individual like Simpson could only be portrayed via a "supporting actor" role.
Appearing in supporting roles were Gilles Ségal as the human "fly" and Joe Dassin
as Joseph, who runs the traveling fair display that is supposed to smuggle the dagger out of Turkey. The athletic Ségal later inspired other 'trickwire' stunts, including a few used for the Mission Impossible TV show and movie. Joseph (Joe) Dassin was the son of Topkapi's director Jules Dassin: he appeared as an actor in a handful of films, but was better known as a singer-songwriter.
The film was shot on location in Istanbul
, Turkey
, and in Paris at the Boulogne-Billancourt
Studios.
Heist film
A heist film is a film that has an intricate plot woven around a group of people trying to steal something. Versions with dominant or prominent comic elements are often called caper movies. They could be described as the analogues of caper stories in film history...
made by Filmways
Filmways
Filmways, Inc. was a television and film production company founded by American film executive Martin Ransohoff in 1958...
Pictures and distributed by United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
. It was produced and directed
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
by the emigre American film director, Jules Dassin
Jules Dassin
Julius "Jules" Dassin , was an American film director, with Jewish-Russian origins. He was a subject of the Hollywood blacklist in the McCarthy era, and subsequently moved to France where he revived his career.-Early life:...
. The film is based on Eric Ambler
Eric Ambler
Eric Clifford Ambler OBE was an influential British author of spy novels who introduced a new realism to the genre. Ambler also used the pseudonym Eliot Reed for books co-written with Charles Rodda.-Life:...
's novel The Light of Day (1962), adapted as a screenplay by Monja Danischewsky
Monja Danischewsky
Monja Danischewsky was a producer, writer, and a worker who produced and wrote the famous film Topkapi and The Thomas Crown Affair with other people.-Career:...
.
The film stars Melina Mercouri
Melina Mercouri
Melina Mercouri , born as Maria Amalia Mercouri was a Greek actress, singer and politician.As an actress she made her film debut in Stella and met international success with her performances in Never on Sunday, Phaedra, Topkapi and Promise at Dawn...
(who later became Dassin's wife), Maximilian Schell
Maximilian Schell
Maximilian Schell is an Austrian-born Swiss actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Judgment at Nuremberg in 1961...
, Peter Ustinov
Peter Ustinov
Peter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter...
, Robert Morley
Robert Morley
Robert Adolph Wilton Morley, CBE was an English actor who, often in supporting roles, was usually cast as a pompous English gentleman representing the Establishment...
, Gilles Ségal and Akim Tamiroff
Akim Tamiroff
Akim Mikhailovich Tamiroff was an Armenian actor. He won the first Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.Tamiroff was born in Tiflis, Russian Empire , of Armenian ethnicity. He trained at the Moscow Art Theatre drama school. He arrived in the U.S. in 1923 on a tour with a troupe of actors...
.
The music score was by Manos Hadjidakis
Manos Hadjidakis
Manos Hatzidakis was a Greek composer and theorist of the Greek music. He was also one of the main prime movers of the "Éntekhno" song ....
, the cinematography by Henri Alekan
Henri Alekan
Henri Alekan was a French cinematographer.-Life:Henri Alekan was born in Montmartre in 1909. At the age of sixteen he and his brother became travelling puppeteers. A little later he started work as third assistant cameraman at the Billancourt studios. He then spent a short time in the army,...
and the costume design by Theoni V. Aldredge
Theoni V. Aldredge
Theoni V. Aldredge was a Greek-American stage and screen costume designer.Born Theoni Athanasiou Vachlioti in Thessaloniki in 1922, Aldredge received her training at the American School in Athens. She emigrated to the United States in 1949 and attended the Goodman Theatre at DePaul University,...
.
Plot
The film opens with the glamorous and avaricious Elizabeth Lipp (Melina MercouriMelina Mercouri
Melina Mercouri , born as Maria Amalia Mercouri was a Greek actress, singer and politician.As an actress she made her film debut in Stella and met international success with her performances in Never on Sunday, Phaedra, Topkapi and Promise at Dawn...
) visiting Istanbul. She sees a traveling fair which features replicas of treasures from the Topkapi Palace
Topkapi Palace
The Topkapı Palace is a large palace in Istanbul, Turkey, that was the primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans for approximately 400 years of their 624-year reign....
, and says enigmatically to herself that now she sees how "it" can be done. Next she cases the Topkapi itself, where she is clearly fascinated by the emerald-encrusted dagger of Sultan
Sultan
Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...
Mahmud I
Mahmud I
Mahmud I , called the Hunchback was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1730 to 1754.-Biography:...
.
After leaving Turkey, she recruits her ex-lover, Swiss master-criminal Walter Harper (Maximilian Schell
Maximilian Schell
Maximilian Schell is an Austrian-born Swiss actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Judgment at Nuremberg in 1961...
), to help her plan the theft of the dagger. Harper insists that they work only with "amateurs"—individuals with no police record. This includes Cedric Page (Robert Morley
Robert Morley
Robert Adolph Wilton Morley, CBE was an English actor who, often in supporting roles, was usually cast as a pompous English gentleman representing the Establishment...
), an eccentric British master of all things mechanical, including security systems, as well as Giulio the Human Fly (Ségal), a mute acrobat whose role will be to steal the dagger while suspended from above, thus defeating the floor-mounted alarm.
More surprisingly, Harper and Lipp recruit Arthur Simon Simpson (Peter Ustinov
Peter Ustinov
Peter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter...
)—a small-time hustler of Anglo-Egyptian parentage, now operating in Kavala
Kavala
Kavala , is the second largest city in northern Greece, the principal seaport of eastern Macedonia and the capital of Kavala peripheral unit. It is situated on the Bay of Kavala, across from the island of Thasos...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, where he peddles fake antiques to the tourists and offers to show them the local nightlife. Without revealing his true purpose, Harper hires Simpson to drive a luxury American convertible into Turkey and deliver it to a hotel in Istanbul.
Unknown to Simpson, the car contains hidden explosives and firearms that the thieves plan to use in their burglary - they have set up the hapless Simpson as driver in case the border police search the car.
At the Turkish border, the police find that Simpson's (Egyptian) passport is out of date. They search the car, find the firearms and grill Simpson. The Turkish Secret Police deduce that the gang are plotting an assassination at a forthcoming military parade. Under threat of a death sentence, Simpson is recruited to spy on Harper and Lipp.
As part of the police ruse, Page, picking up the car in Istanbul, is told that only Simpson, who imported the car, is legally permitted to drive it in Turkey. Thus the gang are saddled with the "schmo" Harper had intended to dump.
As instructed, Simpson leaves notes in discarded cigarette boxes for his police handlers - but, being ignorant of the conspirators' true intentions, most of his intelligence is worthless: he informs the police, based on a conversation with a drunken cook (Tamiroff), that the group are Russian agents.
When the gang member who was to have supported Giulio from above during the robbery injures his hands, the gang reluctantly bring Simpson into the plot as a substitute. He in turn confesses to them that they are being watched by the police. Harper in response revises his plan and accelerates the timing of the burglary, arranging to give their police tails the slip at a big wrestling match.
That evening, while Lipp distracts the keeper of a nearby lighthouse so that Page can surreptitiously prevent his light from giving the burglars' position away, Harper, Simpson and Giulio break into the museum's treasury, steal the dagger, replace it with a replica, and exit without triggering the alarm.
The gang successfully deliver the dagger to Joseph, proprietor of the traveling fair display, who is assigned to smuggle the dagger out of the country as part of his collection of replicas. Unnoticed by the thieves, though, during the robbery a bird has flown through the window by which they entered, and is trapped inside when they close the window on their way out.
As part of Harper's plan to outsmart the police, he and his fellow gang members now go to police headquarters, to "reveal" their discovery of weapons behind a panel in the door of the car. When the police inspector asks Simpson to vouch for Harper and Lipp's whereabouts that day, Simpson throws in his lot with the thieves and backs up their alibi.
However, the alarm at the Topkapi is now triggered by the trapped bird, and soon the inspector is phoned with this news. In parallel, Simpson's final notes to the police, now on the inspector's desk, provide a connection (which Simpson himself had not understood) between the gang and the traveling fair which shows replicas of the Topkapi treasures. Putting two and two together, the inspector confidently informs Harper and the others that he now knows why they came to Turkey, because "a little bird told me".
The film closes with the gang in a Turkish prison. Irrepressible, Lipp begins to tell them of her fascination with the Russian Imperial Crown Jewels in the Kremlin...
Production
Ambler's novel is different from the movie on several counts, with the story narrated by Simpson (named Arthur Abdel Simpson in the book), so that the reader only gradually comes to work out what Harper and his associates are really up to. Simpson in the book is blackmailed into driving the car to Istanbul after Harper catches him trying to steal Harper's travelers' checks. The book features frequent flashbacks to Simpson's schooldays in England, which help to explain his character and motives more clearly than in the film.According to Jules Dassin, he originally planned to cast Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers
Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...
as Simpson, but Sellers refused to work with Maximilian Schell, who he claimed had the reputation for being difficult. Dassin was not prepared to dispense with Schell, and so cast Ustinov in place of Sellers.
Although he played one of the movie's leading roles, Peter Ustinov
Peter Ustinov
Peter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter...
was nominated in 1964 for—and won—the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
rather than the Academy Award for Best Actor
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for his portrayal of Simpson. In an interview given on Ustinov's death in 2004, Maximilian Schell
Maximilian Schell
Maximilian Schell is an Austrian-born Swiss actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Judgment at Nuremberg in 1961...
surmised that this may have been due to the misconception that a servile individual like Simpson could only be portrayed via a "supporting actor" role.
Appearing in supporting roles were Gilles Ségal as the human "fly" and Joe Dassin
Joe Dassin
Joseph Ira Dassin , more commonly known as Joe Dassin, was an American singer-songwriter best known for his French songs of the 1960s and 1970s.-Biography:...
as Joseph, who runs the traveling fair display that is supposed to smuggle the dagger out of Turkey. The athletic Ségal later inspired other 'trickwire' stunts, including a few used for the Mission Impossible TV show and movie. Joseph (Joe) Dassin was the son of Topkapi's director Jules Dassin: he appeared as an actor in a handful of films, but was better known as a singer-songwriter.
The film was shot on location in Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, and in Paris at the Boulogne-Billancourt
Boulogne-Billancourt
Boulogne-Billancourt is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Boulogne-Billancourt is a sub-prefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department and the seat of the Arrondissement of Boulogne-Billancourt....
Studios.