"Hot Millions' is something I never thought possible: a quiet heist movie.
Superb cast. Peter Ustinov is a con-man just out of prison. Ustinov is an Oscar-winning supporting character actor but he always feels stretched thin, like chewing gum, as a lead.
The aging con man decides to go into the nascent world of . . . Computers! This is back when they were the size of refrigerators and worked reel to reel. And they are photographed ominously, as they were considered back then.
Maggie Smith, using an accent not much better than van Dyke's Cockey, is his incompetent secretary.
Then there's Bob Newhart. He's the nemesis. The quiet nemesis. Ustinov, who apparently learned programming overnight, shows him up and Newhat is determined to get him . . . And his secretary.
The firm Ustinov decides to bilk is American, the English arm run by Karl Malden playing his dumbest character ever.
Under the boss' nose Ustinov sets up dummy corporations to embezzle tons of money. But then Newhart gets suspicious . . .
Slow, underwhelming film, even when a host of notable British supporting actors make brief appearances. But it has some clever ideas, I won't reveal.
If you want to see a real dinosaur of computer heist movies, try this.
Superb cast. Peter Ustinov is a con-man just out of prison. Ustinov is an Oscar-winning supporting character actor but he always feels stretched thin, like chewing gum, as a lead.
The aging con man decides to go into the nascent world of . . . Computers! This is back when they were the size of refrigerators and worked reel to reel. And they are photographed ominously, as they were considered back then.
Maggie Smith, using an accent not much better than van Dyke's Cockey, is his incompetent secretary.
Then there's Bob Newhart. He's the nemesis. The quiet nemesis. Ustinov, who apparently learned programming overnight, shows him up and Newhat is determined to get him . . . And his secretary.
The firm Ustinov decides to bilk is American, the English arm run by Karl Malden playing his dumbest character ever.
Under the boss' nose Ustinov sets up dummy corporations to embezzle tons of money. But then Newhart gets suspicious . . .
Slow, underwhelming film, even when a host of notable British supporting actors make brief appearances. But it has some clever ideas, I won't reveal.
If you want to see a real dinosaur of computer heist movies, try this.