Topkapi is a 1964 American heist comedy film produced and directed by Jules Dassin from a screenplay by Monja Danischewsky, based on the 1962 novel The Light of Day by Eric Ambler. but Sellers refused to work with Maximilian Schell, who he claimed had a reputation for being difficult. Dassin was not prepared to dispense with Schell, and so cast Ustinov in place of Sellers. Ustinov won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Simpson. It was his second win in the category, having won four years previously for his work in Spartacus.
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 television series and film. Joe Dassin was the son of the film's director Jules Dassin, and appeared as an actor in a handful of films, but was better known as a singer-songwriter.
Principal photography began on August 12, 1963. The majority of location filming was completed in Istanbul, Turkey, with locations including the Topkapı Palace, Hagia Sophia, the Bosporus waterway dividing Europe and Asia, the Golden Horn, the Sea of Marmara, and Dolmabahçe Palace, before moving for one week of shooting at the harbor of Kavala, Greece. Interiors were shot at the Billancourt Studios in Paris.
Reception
Box office
Topkapi grossed $7 million at the US box office,
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 95% based on 21 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10.
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times applauded the film as well acted, "adroitly plotted", and abounding in brilliant Technicolor that Dassin exploits "like a child with a new paint box", but he saved his greatest praise for Ustinov:<blockquote>[I]t is his misadventures and confusions and frights that truly make this picture something more than melodrama with a farcical edge. He makes it a joyous sort of travesty of the bad art of burglary. To see Mr. Ustinov sweating through his mischance encounters with the Turkish police, or playing the role of stool pigeon while running with the gang, or climbing about the roof of the palace under the heavy influence of vertigo, with the Golden Horn in the distance, is to see first-class comedy.</blockquote>
Accolades
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
! scope="col"| Award
! scope="col"| Year
! scope="col"| Category
! scope="col"| Recipient(s)
! scope="col"| Result
! scope="col"|
|-
! scope="row"| National Board of Review
| 1964
| Top Ten Films
| Topkapi
|
| style="text-align:center"|
|-
! scope="row"| Academy Awards
| rowspan="7"| 1965
| Best Supporting Actor
| Peter Ustinov
|
| style="text-align:center"|
|-
! scope="row"| David di Donatello
| Golden Plate
| Melina Mercouri
|
|
|-
! scope="row" rowspan="2"| Golden Globe Awards
| Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
| Peter Ustinov
|
| style="text-align:center" rowspan="2"|
|-
| Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
| Melina Mercouri
|
|-
! scope="row" rowspan="2"| Laurel Awards
| Top Action Drama
| Topkapi
|
| style="text-align:center" rowspan="2"|
|-
| Supporting Performance, Male
| Peter Ustinov
|
|-
! scope="row"| Writers Guild of America Awards
| Best Written American Comedy
| Monja Danischewsky
|
| style="text-align:center"|
|}
Legacy
Topkapi later inspired the Mission: Impossible television series, and the scene in which a character hangs by a rope in order to steal a dagger inspired a similar scene in the 1996 Mission: Impossible film, where Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) rappels into a secure room to access a computer.
In his 2007 autobiography, Peter Sallis, who voiced Wallace, said the 1993 short film The Wrong Trousers was based loosely on Topkapi, and said it was his favorite Wallace & Gromit film.
See also
- List of American films of 1964
References
External links
- Topkapi at AllMovie