Ryan O'Neal quits his job as a computer programmer to become a jewel thief. He moves into Jacqueline Bisset's house,gets into a chess match with Austin Pendleton, and plays a cat-and-mouse game with insurance investigator Warren Oates, who is convinced he is the 'Chess Thief', but has no evidence.
It's one of those movies in which beautiful people do major crimes with a side of anomie and pointlessness of modern straight society. Part of the way this is shown in the movie is that Miss Bisset's house is huge and luxurious, but because it is inherited and everything is still in probate, there is no furniture. O'Neal feels a sense of relationship with her and Oates, but there's no sense of it being returned.
Unfortunately, that sense of emptiness and pointlessness extends to the movie itself, leaving it dull, with no real emotional story behind it, just a series of anecdotes. With Jill Clayburgh, Ned Beatty, Gregory Sierra, and John Hillerman. Walter Hill wrote the script, and Henry Mancini the music. Frank Marshall was the location manager.
It's one of those movies in which beautiful people do major crimes with a side of anomie and pointlessness of modern straight society. Part of the way this is shown in the movie is that Miss Bisset's house is huge and luxurious, but because it is inherited and everything is still in probate, there is no furniture. O'Neal feels a sense of relationship with her and Oates, but there's no sense of it being returned.
Unfortunately, that sense of emptiness and pointlessness extends to the movie itself, leaving it dull, with no real emotional story behind it, just a series of anecdotes. With Jill Clayburgh, Ned Beatty, Gregory Sierra, and John Hillerman. Walter Hill wrote the script, and Henry Mancini the music. Frank Marshall was the location manager.