The takeaway from watching this heist farce is that some cultural sensibilities change a lot over time. Ustinov’s Arthur and Schell’s Walter still have some humor and pathos more than 50 years after Jules Dassin directed this film, but the same can’t be said for Morely’s Cedric or Hahn’s Hans <ouch!>, whose humor is tired and hammy. But it’s Melina Mercouri’s Elizabeth who kills most of the fun for today’s audience. Her lines are a series of tedious, obvious flirtations: Do you mind that I am a nymphomaniac? .... Don't waste it; use it! And she drapes herself over each of the men at some point despite not having the screen charisma to make it seem like she’s being effective at teasing or manipulating them. In scene after scene, such broad humor falls flat.
More’s the pity that Dassin didn’t drop the farce element of Topkapi and focus on the elements he’d mastered so thoroughly in Rififi because that’s where the great strengths here lie. Like Paris was a major character in his 1955 film, Istanbul stars here. An opening montage of the city shows us the wood houses, the street markets, the crowded bridges and boats, and the exotic architecture that makes the city so special, and Dassin even includes unique Turkish elements like the traveling carnival and a large oil wrestling tournament. And the heist itself, with its Rififi-like silence and execution of an elaborate scheme, captures us with its suspense and its imagery. It’s hard not to imagine that de Palma had this heist in Mission Impossible. With de Palma, we watch Tom Cruise dangle above the temperature-sensitive floor while the director cuts between the main character and those supporting him; in Topkapi, we watch Giulio dangle above the pressure-sensitive floor while Dassin cuts between the main character and those supporting him. The thieves in the two movies even wear similar gloves.
But for whatever reason, whenever tension begins to mount in this film, Dassin lets the steam out. The little bird that unknowingly triggers the alarm of the Topkapi Treasury could have been an instrument of fate, but in this film, it’s the punchline for the authorities. “A little bird told me” isn't even clever. And we’re left with a pretty farce that isn't very gripping.
