Ein achtbarer Mann

If you love those 70's films, this has it all. The cars, the clothes, the "modern" machinery that is hokey today, and camera angles, etc. The best part of the film is one of the best car chases on film (perhaps top 10 best ever, really !), with no CGI, quick cutaways, etc., worth watching for this alone. The rest of the heist is pretty standard, but decent, with a complicated ending of course (it never just ends clean in these movies now, does it?). The movie takes place in Germany, although of course all of the text is in English, as if people in Germany speak English as a matter of course in their daily lives. It does not matter though, Hamburg is portrayed as gritty, again, that 70's gritty that we all miss and love to see in films.

To insure some box office for this film released in America as Master Touch, Kirk Douglas was added to this Italian-German production filmed in and around Hamburg. I'm sure that Douglas did this one for the European vacation he was going to get.

Master Touch is your average caper film that has elements of other films like Bullitt, The Asphalt Jungle and Topkapi. But it doesn't glide into the different moods of these films, it rather lurches uncomfortably.

Kirk is a master safe-cracker who's just returned from a stretch in the joint. It's never really explained why this American is operating in Germany, so I assume it was a German prison. Wolfgang Preiss, a syndicate boss for whom he was doing a job when he was caught wants him for another caper. Douglas turns him down flat, but Preiss won't take no for an answer.

In the meantime though he's pinched for cash so what to do, but back to the old trade and he decides to pull the job that Preiss offered on his own. He teams up with young Giuliano Gemma, a young circus performer who he saw best one of Preiss's hoods in a fight. In the meantime wife Florinda Bolkan pleads with Kirk to go straight.

The best parts of Master Touch are devoted to the robbery and it is here the film most resembles Topkapi. The robbery sequences show that Kirk indeed had a Master Touch.

What he didn't have is good judgment in people and that leads to a climax somewhat reminiscent of The Asphalt Jungle. I'm not about to give away any endings.

Master Touch will never make anyone's top 10 list of Kirk Douglas films. Good in spots it still leaves quite a bit to be desired. But Kirk's fans around the world will like it.

This West German/Italian production seems to capture the pneuma of that most down-beat of hippy years - 1972 so well with its green/grey tones. Vigorous, steely-eyed, cleft-chinned American star Kirk Douglas is in good shape at 55-years-of-age and is professionally excellent. He plays a recently released convict and safecracker, Steve Wallace who is contracted to do one more job on a Hamburg bank which would set him up for life. Vis-a-vis the props used by the Italian set decorator, Francesco Bronzi in the art direction it would seem that he had an eye on the future. Bronzi was the set decorator in the adventure film, ''Burn!'' (1968-1971) starring Marlon Brando. Also, the apparatus and technology used by Wallace and Marco to practise the heist, including a silver triangle, frequency oscillators, sound effects and pulleys give the impression of a cutting-edge physics lesson early-'70s style with a touch of psychedelism, while the impressive sophisticated bank vault itself (''Big Ben'') includes a huge circular steel structure, shimmering chrome and steel panels and a circular steel safe which emerges from the floor to conjure a frozen timeless aspect ca. 1972 which was also the year that Charlton Heston's Antony & Cleopatra, The Darwin Adventure (starring young handsome English actor, Nicholas Clay) and Pocket Money (starring Paul Newman and Lee Marvin) were released. The film evocatively ends in a Hamburg coal-dump located near the docks which evokes the industry of Hamburg at the time. Young cherubic Italian actor, Giuliano Gemma - he of the auburn-hair, hazel eyes and chiseled features is impressive as Wallace's protege - he looks like he is enjoying himself in the company of top-most American star, Douglas. Released in UK cinemas on May 13 1973 and with evocative experimental electronic score possibly by Ennio Morricone.

A spaghetti western, or in this case, a spaghetti heist. Starts out as the usual story of someone being released from prison, determined to pull one last job that will set him up for life. Stars kirk douglas as wallace, and a lot of people we've never heard of before. Co-stars florinda bolkan (as the wife) and giuliano gemma (as the "business" partner). It takes a lot of time to get to the actual heist... car chases, car stunts, fist fights. A small, wooden gate that just rips the roof right off a car. Such a poorly made car! Super duper 1970s music, when wallace is home with the wife. All that really matters here is the last thirty minutes. It's set up as a regular bank heist, but there are some interesting twists and turns along the way. Directed by michele lupo, who died young at 56. Kirk douglas lived to 103! And was nominated for three film oscars.

There's a lot of other, similar, better foreign heist movies from this period, including the French AND HOPE TO DIE, and the Italian LAST CHANCE which I both found much more interesting than this work.

The main thing this one has going for it is once-huge American star Kirk Douglas in a very meaty central role as a super-suave master thief akin to Clooney's character in the recent "Ocean's 11" series. The supporting cast is also good, though underused, with Gemma as a trapeze artist who Douglas tries to recruit into the life of thievery. Wolfgang Preiss (the guy who always plays Nazi bad guys in war movies) plays the main mob boss with Romano Puppo in a satisfying role as his head thug. Puppo and Gemma have numerous fight and chase scenes which are fun to watch but add absolutely nothing to the plot. Speaking of plot, this one conveniently glazes over all the details of the heist, except on how Douglas deals with the security system's sound recorder. His preparations don't appear to be particularly well informed yet he seems unswervingly confident about the whole thing. Hmmm....

He also has a hot girlfriend/wife/lover/whatever Florinda Bolkan... who repeatedly tells him NOT to go through with the heist or she will leave him. These assertions make absolutely no impact on Douglas, who is single-minded in his pursuit of a big score... and then he is surprised later by all the double-crosses.

It's worth tracking down, but not exactly the most cerebral crime caper from the period. A little more realism would have done this film an immeasurable service.