User reviews

French heartthrob Alain Delon made his US leading man debut in this adaptation of Zekial Marko's novel "Scratch a Thief" about an ex-thief in San Francisco trying to stay out of trouble but fingered for the murder of a Chinese storekeeper by the police sergeant (Van Heflin) who hates him. Meanwhile, the thief's shady older brother (Jack Palance) is in town, needing the kid's help in pulling off a job. Ordinary crime plot given amusingly jazzy, frenetic direction by Ralph Nelson, who sets the scene with a flashy nightclub drum solo that is crazy-cool. Screenwriter Marko really lays on the '60s-era jive talk, some of it mind-boggling, while Nelson's quasi-European handling gives the picture an arresting look in vivid black-and-white. Some of the interesting supporting characters include a fey platinum-blond punk (years ahead of his time), plus Ann-Margret as Delon's put-upon wife. The talky lulls are given a boost by the slangy dialogue, and the location shooting in San Francisco is a big asset. **1/2 from ****

Any semi-serious movie buff or even casual viewer should be able to see that this film practically screams "Coen Brothers," 30 years before their time. The creepy blond character in "Fargo" is a dead ringer for the creepy blond bad guy in "Once a Thief," right down to the hairstyle. And the general ambiance of many scenes, as well as the ironic plot twists near the end, indicate that this movie was a big influence on the Coen bros, and to some extent, "where they went to school."

It should also be noted that though this is film noir, it's also "hip" film noir, a rare breed that includes Larry Moyer's "The Moving Finger" and precious few others of the time. In fact, both these movies were too hip for their time.

I suppose I like the cast better than the film, itself. Heflin, Palance, Ann-Margret, Chandler, and Delon are all watchable.

This may very well be Chandler's finest performance (and he was always good at playing bad guys).

The story is one we've all seen before, many times, yet the cast makes it worth watching. Ann-Margret might not have been as good as she could have been, but she's not really that bad.

Even the scenes involving the little girl work well, and the chemistry between she and Delon is exceptional.

The surprise ending is tense and exciting. Too bad there's no DVD of this film. I'd buy it.

Johnboy

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 narcotics

and 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 director

Ralph Nelson keeps the picture moving, often punctuated by moments of

unexpected 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. By

today's standards, the character played by Ann-Margret would never be

depicted in such a fashion as seen here. (At one point, she apologizes after

being 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.

In San Francisco, two men kill a Chinese woman after robbing her store. One of the thieves has the same characteristics of the Italian immigrant Eddie Pedak (Alain Delon) and he becomes the prime suspect of Inspector Mike Vido (Van Heflin). Eddie is an ex-thief that was found not guilty for shooting Vito in a bank heist, but the inspector blames him. Presently Eddie is married with a child with Kristine Pedak (Ann- Margret), works as a truck driver and has put a down payment on a fishing vessel with his savings. Out of the blue, Eddie's brother and gangster Walter Pedak (Jack Palance) and his henchmen Arthur Sargatanas (Davis Chandler) and Cleveland 'Cleve' Shoenstein (Tony Musante) visit Eddie to invite him to participate in a one-million dollar heist. Eddie loses his job and his personal life is deeply affected by Vito since he can not find another job. He decides to meet his brother and accepts to participate in the hold up. Meanwhile Vito discovers that Eddie was actually framed in the Chinese murder. He visits Eddie to disclose his findings to him but Eddie has already participated in the plan. What will happen to him?

"Once a Thief" is an engaging film with a non-original story and unfair conclusion. The direction and performances are top-notch but the situations are inspired in many film-noirs. The deceptive hopeless conclusion will certainly disappoint many viewers. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Marca de um Erro" ("The Mark of a Mistake")

Around this time French film star Alain Delon was trying to broaden his appeal internationally by doing some American films. He did a whole lot better with this than with Texas Across The River.

Delon is a former crook trying to go straight as he has a wife Ann-Margret and a small daughter. Not easy because a San Francisco detective Van Heflin is looking to put him away any way he can. This was before the Miranda decision and Heflin is ruthless in what he tries to do.

Delon might be able to resist Heflin, but when his older brother Jack Palance calls it becomes too much. Palance is a big time operator and planner and has a big score lined up. He also has part of a crew as well, the none too bright Tony Musante and the psychotic John Davis Chandler.

There is such an air of tragedy around Delon that I've seen in very few other films. No matter what he does he has a destiny he can't escape.

Ann-Margret sheds her sex kitten image and turns in a great performance as a wife and mother fighting for her man and marriage against the fates. Too bad the public didn't want to see her in serious stuff like Once A Thief.

This one's a keeper and a sleeper. It should be watched and become better known.

The premiss of the movie was very intense with the music. The love that this man had for his wife and little girl was honest and heart taking. The acting was great by all. The little girl's acting was very powerful. Alain Delon and Ann-Margret are great!!! Truly a timeless movie. Very emotionally impacting. Definetly one of the great great old movies. Wish there were more.

Lets face it. The 'film-noir' period was already over its peak and as good as death already in 1965, when this movie was released. This movie is a late attempt to revive the film-noir genre, with some big names involved. They partly succeeded. The movie works quite well as a crime/thriller movie but it lacks the certain style, characters and subtle style of film-making to consider this movie a good attempt at the film-noir genre.

All of the classic ingredients are present here but everything doesn't always connect very well. Some of the story lines are underdeveloped and it often leaves more questions than answers. I still don't fully understand what the point was of the robbery/killing in the beginning of the movie. Some of the events in the movie feel silly but it luckily doesn't make the movie any less pleasant to watch. So even though everything in the movie is far from flawless it still is a good enough crime/thriller to watch.

The main plot line isn't anything too terribly exciting but it's told in a good way. Director Ralph Nelson brought the standard and thin story well to the screen and even manages to make the movie look exciting, thrilling and surprising.

The musical score by Lalo Schifrin is quite odd but its suits the movie very well and therefor I liked it.

The characters and cast are good and interesting. OK so Alain Delon might not be the best leading man but the supporting cast certainly compensates for this. Ann-Margret shows she is a great actress although she mainly only does some screaming and crying in this movie. It gets a bit too much after a while. Van Heflin and Jack Palance were also great and John Davis Chandler beautifully plays a ruthless villainous looking villain. He absolutely stole the show in most of the sequences he was present in.

A good enough crime/thriller that deserves to be seen.

7/10

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A down on his luck guy just out of prison can't hold down a job to support his wife (Ann-Margret, playing sort of a good girl this time, but overacting hysterically as usual) and kid. He isn't helped by the fact that a cop he shot years ago (Heflin) is out to get him and his brother's (Palance) cronies are trying to frame him for a murder. After he accepts a job with them out of desperation, his brother is killed and his daughter kidnapped by the 2 thugs, he turns to Van Heflin's character to help get her back.

Palance is quite good at adding some characterization to a standard role. Heflin also does well with a role the audience can identify with.

The delectable Alain Delon as a San Francisco thief in a grim black and white caper film? Ridiculous, with his sleepy bedroom eyes and beautiful thick hair blowing in the breeze, he belongs in a speedo on a bright and sunny beach, gazing moodily out to sea. He's as out of place as a peacock in a henhouse. Ann Margret chews scenery as an equally unlikely wife (and mother). Both these people are sadly miscast.

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.

Gosh Delon was so handsome. I wish I liked his movies better.

"Once a Thief" from 1965 was another disappointment, despite a good cast. It's a crime flick starring Delon, Ann-Margret, Jack Palance, Van Heflin, and John Davis Chandler.

Heflin is a cop dying to get something on former criminal Delon, who intends to go straight. But Heflin's harassment loses him his job, and he can't get another to support his wife (Ann-Margret) and daughter. So he agrees to go in with his brother (Palance) and his brother's scary friend (Chandler) and commit a crime that will give him a big payday.

Depressing with an uneven script, though the performances were good. Hard to picture Delon and Palance as brothers, though. Maybe they had different mothers.

Ann-Margret did not have much to do except look sexy serving cocktails, cry, and scream.

Delon was a huge star everywhere but in the U. S. He was effective in many films. But he never had an American affect or was the right kind of leading man for U. S. audiences, any more than Jean Gabin was.

Had he appeared in a widely distributed film directed with a foreign sensibility he might have done better. Directors like Anton Corbijn, M. Night Shyalaman, Wes Anderson would have been better for him. Alas that ship sailed as he is now retired and overseeing the production of all the products that bear his name.

A downer. Not great, not awful.

In San Francisco, ex-con Eddie Pedak (Alain Delon) is trying to go clean with his wife Kristine (Ann-Margret) and young daughter after two years in prison. His older brother Walter Pedak (Jack Palance) tries to recruit him for a heist but he refuses. Police Inspector Mike Vido is still bitter after getting shot by someone he assumes to be Eddie. Vido arrests Eddie but the witness clears him. He loses his job anyways and is forced to take the job from his brother.

This black and white crime drama has a lot going for it. Palance is a great criminal. Ann-Margret is luminous. I do have an issue with Alain Delon. He's oddly flat as a harden criminal. I expect some of Palance in him but they don't seem to fit together. Of course, I find out later that he's French. I guess I sensed his Euro superiority. As for the plot, there are some great criminal sections. Eddie is not appealing for a long stretch after losing his job and the movie drags during this section. The action is pretty good compared to other similar films but it's not ground breaking. This has compelling slices of criminal underground and police work. It may not be the best of its genre but it's got good aspects.

Scroll through the IMDb reviews, and you'll see everything from a 2 out of 10 to a 10 out of 10, with the majority of reviews hovering between a 5 and a 6. I'm giving it a 7 because what I like about it outweighs what leaves me dissatisfied. This film is proof that art really IS subjective.

I actually liked the pace of the film, although I agree that its energetic opening during the credits is diametrically opposed to its slow-go pace the remainder of the film. I like Deleon. I've always liked Ann-Margret. But I must confess that I have never, ever been a fan of Jack Palance. The only reason I will watch a film with him in the cast is because of someone else in the cast.

The most engaging performances are of Heflin and Deleon; and in their scenes together, I couldn't help but feel they had a professional respect for one another off screen. But truly of particular note is John Davis Chandler. (And there's a twist to his character at the very end, if you are smart enough to catch it.) It took me about halfway through the film to remember him as the scary gangster in Adventures In Babysitting. And I found his IMDb bio interesting also.

Personally, I liked the ending; but I can understand some viewers might be let down.

Give this film a chance if you're a fan of one or more of the cast members. Just know from all the reviews on this site that it truly comes down to personal tastes as to whether you will like it or not.

This heist movie packs thrills, emotion , extraordinary performances, twists, turns and nail-biting burglary. San Francisco ex-con Eddie Pedak (Alain Delon) wishes to go straight, but local cop Mike Vido (Van Heflin) , motivated by a personal revenge when he was wounded in a hold-up, keeps harassing him while Eddie's brother Walter(Jack Palance) wants Eddie for one last major heist along with his two villain hoodlums (Tony musante, John Davies Chandler) . Eddie has a beautiful wife, (Anne Margret) and a daughter, and he puts a down-payment on a boat. Caught! . . Right in the middle between the killers and the cops!. Always a target, for either side of the law!. Once a thief...Always a target with the cops on one side - the killers on the other!. The cop believes Eddie shot him; the brother wants him for one last heist !.

This is a decent thriller full of intrigue, family drama, action, tension, emotion, and violence. Stunning performances by the trio of known protagonists: Delon, Heflin and Margret. Here Alain Delon is nice as Eddie Pedak, a convicted criminal who has a steady job as well as a good family , Van Heflin as the police detective who's after him and Anne Margret as the long-suffering and faithful wife. This entertaining and suspenseful film is plenty of twists and unexpected turns. Second film, also starring Alain Delon, adapted from a Zekial Marko novel, the first one was ¨Henry Verneuil's Any number can win¨ (1963) that Delon starred with Jean Gavin. The great starring trio are accompanied by stunning secondaries, such as: Jack Palance, Tony Musante, Jeff Corey and special mention for John Davis Chandler for creating one of the baddest henchmen characters of the sixties.

Contains an atmospheric cinematography in black and white by cameraman Robert Burks (Hitchcock's regular cameraman) , using camera Eastman 4-X , which eliminated the need for a lot of expensive lighting equipment, especially in nighttime set pieces. As well as thrilling and offbeat musical score by composer Lalo Schifrin. The motion picture was competently and professionally directed by Ralph Nelson. There were no half measures in this filmmaker. As Nelson would make sentimental movies or violent and gore films . Failure alternated with hits through the 1960s, though Nelson's direction was more than successful in ¨Lilies of the field¨ with invaluable help of Sidney Poitier who won an Oscar as an African-American helping a group of German nuns to build a chapel , it has been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally significant¨. And of course , his greatest success ¨Soldier Blue¨, including cruel massacres and and blood fountained all over the screen. In the 70s Nelson went on to making strong movies , however, his films themselves were doing less successful at the Boxoffice , numerous of those being barely seen outside US. As a violent Zapata Western titled ¨Wrath of God¨ with Robert Mitchum, as ¨Tick..Tick..Tick¨ in which the racial tensions arise when a black man being elected sheriff , ¨ The Wilby conspiracy¨ about the apartheid with Michael Caine and Sidney Poitier and a Sci-fi movie titled ¨Embryo¨ with Rock Hudson that unfortunately was a flop at the American and international boxoffice . Rating : 6.5/10, above average, fans will enjoy the french idol Delon.

Even when it was first released ONCE A THIEF was one of those movies whose cack-handed attempts at hip-ness doomed it to be badly dated within a few years of its release. The opening scene, over which the credits stutter and blink, is set in a jazz nightclub in which a black musician plays a manic drum solo. We are made privy to snatches of conversation that bear no relevance to the plot, held between characters that are never seen again. In many ways this jarring opening sequence is all too symptomatic of the film failings as a whole.

The narrative falters badly as an already thin plot is stretched to breaking point to fill 105 minutes of screen time. It's inevitable, therefore, that the story becomes hopelessly bogged down and tedious. Characters such as Luke, Eddie Pedak's (Delon) jailbird buddy (played by screenwriter Zekial Marko) serve little purpose other than to pad out the running time and provide ‘symbolic' signposts to anti-hero Eddie Pedak's downfall and (partial) redemption. Pedak himself is not particularly likeable: he sulks, yells at his small daughter, and repeatedly assaults his wife when the going gets tough.

Director Nelson seems to be trying to combine ‘gritty' noir with domestic drama, a strange marriage for anyone to enter into, and ends up making a total hash of both. To be fair, his efforts aren't assisted by an amateurish performance from poor Ann-Margret who is hopelessly out of her depth, her big emotional scene (when hubby Delon returns to a life of crime) is truly excruciating to watch. Alain Delon also struggles to do justice to a dramatic role that proves too complex for his heavily accented English. There are a couple of jewels in the mud, however. The employment office scene holds up well, and John Davis Chandler is agreeably chilling as Sargatanas, possible paedophile and albino henchman to Jack Palance, Pedak's criminal brother. Palance, too, puts in a typically professional performance. Unfortunately, such rare highlights are not enough to hold the viewer's interest, and the movie labours towards its inevitable conclusion with minimal style and zero substance. It is all too sad and obvious from this effort why Nelson, who once showed so much promise (check out REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT and FATE IS THE HUNTER), ended his career directing TV movies.

The casting for this film was pretty weird. French actor Alain Delon plays an Italian and Jack Palance(!) plays his brother! The two look and sound nothing like brothers and I suppose they chose Delon since apparently Sidney Poitier was not available!! Delon is an ex-con who is married to lovely but often hysterical Ann-Margaret. They have a young daughter but are struggling economically--partly because it's hard for a hot-headed idiot like Delon to keep a job. In fact, there are just way too many scenes where he barks and gesticulates and broods so much you'd swear he's off his meds. Because he acts like a moody jerk through much of the film it's hardly possible to care about him--and this is a major problem with the film. Most caper films, to a degree, you like the crooks and even want to see them get away with the crime---such as in good caper films like "Rififi" or "Bob le Flambeur". With this film, however, you just want it to end. There's more to the plot and there's a parole officer played by Van Heflin, but frankly...who cares?! In addition to Delon's acting, while Ann-Margaret is also a decent actress, you might not think so seeing this film. In particular, pay attention to her at about the 53 and 86 minute marks as she goes off on a bizarre tirade that just seems way overdone. Where was the director? Did they actually WANT this sort of terrible performance?! And, for that matter, who wrote this dialog?! After all, even a film novice might find that scene extremely silly.

So what did I like about this film? Well, not much, since I'd seen so many better and less shrill caper films. However, the blond psycho in the gang was a pretty cool character and Palance wasn't bad at all--and was good as a heavy throughout the 50s and 60s. These, however, are not enough to make the movie worth seeing.

The plot is threadbare, the principals don't really look the part, the pace is much too slow, but this film still has some points of interest.

First, the location work. Plenty of San Francisco footage, though much of it at night (this is film noir, after all). The city looks different now, but many of the setups are in areas that haven't changed too much.

Then there's Anne-Margret, still in her sex-kitten stage but trying hard to break out of it. She's really not up to the mommy part, though she gives it a good try. Her character is about the only sympathetic one in the film, save . . .

Van Heflin's. I've always liked him. He's pretty good as the cop who hounds Delon, though he won't pass for Italian any day of the week, or will Delon, for that matter. It's interesting to contrast this detective with Steve McQueen's Frank Bullit or Clint Eastwood's Harry Callahan. They're all SFPD and only a few years separate their stories, but Heflin's Mike Vido is from another world. Wait until you see who he lives with.

And then there's John David Chandler's homicidal homosexual-child molester, a really nasty characterization you won't encounter today and not often then. Oh yes, he's also a sadist.

Finally, there's Jack Palance's equal opportunity crew: two Italians (though I think their surname is Croatian), a Jew, a Greek, and a Chinese undertaker. Somehow they pull off the heist, though just barely.

Recommended if you enjoy hard-core noir, Anne-Margret, or Heflin, otherwise steer clear.

Once a Thief may be a well-used storyline, but it tells that story with a frankness and grip in a refreshing setting. The acting is fine, the cinematography and direction are compelling. The bad guys are pretty degenerate; Van Heflin as the rogue cop is nicely cast against type. Ann-Margret likewise.

As this movie wrapped, it really seemed like the conclusion of an episodic cops and robbers drama, and I immediately thought of the Streets of San Francisco which debuted only a couple of years later. It also had a good bit of the edge and style of Bullitt, which also debuted one or two years after this.

Alain Delon.. french actor. This one has some fun twists and turns, but if you watch lots of hollywood heists, you will know exactly what's going to happen. Co-stars the delicious AnnMargaret as his wife Kristine. Pedak (Delon) has been released from prison, but the investigating officer Vido (Van Heflin) won't let it go, and is determined to follow him for the rest of his days. When Pedak gets caught up in his own brother's heist, Vido isn't sure who to believe any more. And to complicate things, Kristine and Pedak have a little girl that gets caught up in the drama. It's quite good; co-stars Jack palance as Pedak's older brother. Story by Zekial Marko. Directed by Ralph Nelson. Was nominated for Lilies of the Field, and directed Cary Grant in Father Goose, a world war II film, just before making this film. It's good!