A suave art thief romances a wealthy duchess, only to enable him to steal a priceless painting from her collection. Complications ensue.A suave art thief romances a wealthy duchess, only to enable him to steal a priceless painting from her collection. Complications ensue.A suave art thief romances a wealthy duchess, only to enable him to steal a priceless painting from her collection. Complications ensue.
Virgilio Teixeira
- Cayetano - the Bullfighter
- (as Virgilio Texera)
Britt Ekland
- Mrs. Pickett
- (as Britta Ekman)
Jorge Rigaud
- Spanish Police Inspector
- (as George Rigaud)
Barta Barri
- Chern - Lawyer
- (uncredited)
- …
Toni Fuentes
- Prado Museum Guard
- (uncredited)
Yasmin Khan
- Girl
- (uncredited)
Julio Peña
- Señor Elek - Hotel Bourne Desk Clerk
- (uncredited)
Karl-Heinz Schwerdtfeger
- Police Official
- (uncredited)
Lou Weber
- Prado Museum Guard
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe painting, known as the "Rokeby Venus" is by Velazquez and is his only known nude. It moved to England in 1813 to hang in Rokeby Park, Yorkshire. The painting was purchased by National Art Collections Fund in 1906 for the National Gallery, London. The suffragette Mary Richardson attacked and badly damaged the painting in 1914, but it was restored and returned to display.
- GoofsRight at the start the 'master criminal' says that it takes 32 minutes to the airport and he'll leave at 10 27 in order to get to the airport at 11.00 exactly. For someone who calculates distance and departure times to the minute, he can't do his maths very well.
- Quotes
Jimmy Bourne: [as Eve grabs a drink from a tray and tosses it back] But Eve, that's a *martini*.
Eve Lewis: It *was* a martini.
Featured review
of mild interest
"The Happy Thieves" from 1961 is about art thieves Jimmy and Eve (Rex Harrison and Rita Hayworth) who steal a painting from a museum. A painting belonging to Duchess Blanca (Alida Valli) is stolen from a castle in Spain by the two thieves, but then it's stolen from them by the Duchess' cousin.
Eve wants to call it quits, but the thief, one Dr. Munoz (Gregoire Aslan) blackmails the couple and wants a piece of art from the Prado museum. They have a duplicate made by Jean Marie Calbert (Joseph Wiseman), planning to switch the paintings during a farewell bullfight for the duchess' fiancée, a matador.
A few things could have helped this film. One was a color production. It is Europe and does deal with art, after all. The second thing that would have helped was a more exciting actor as Jimmy. Rex Harrison was a marvelous actor but somehow wrong for this role, not dashing, charismatic, or romantic enough. The last thing that would have helped is a faster pace.
"The Happy Thieves" was based on a book by Richard Condon and directed by George Marshall, both very accomplished, but this isn't the best representation of either one. Hayworth, in her forties here is beautiful, graceful and does a good job. The film was produced by her last husband, and she later pronounced it "rubbish." It moves fairly slowly, but the painting-switching scene is very good. Not awful, not great. Seeing Rita Hayworth is always worthwhile.
Eve wants to call it quits, but the thief, one Dr. Munoz (Gregoire Aslan) blackmails the couple and wants a piece of art from the Prado museum. They have a duplicate made by Jean Marie Calbert (Joseph Wiseman), planning to switch the paintings during a farewell bullfight for the duchess' fiancée, a matador.
A few things could have helped this film. One was a color production. It is Europe and does deal with art, after all. The second thing that would have helped was a more exciting actor as Jimmy. Rex Harrison was a marvelous actor but somehow wrong for this role, not dashing, charismatic, or romantic enough. The last thing that would have helped is a faster pace.
"The Happy Thieves" was based on a book by Richard Condon and directed by George Marshall, both very accomplished, but this isn't the best representation of either one. Hayworth, in her forties here is beautiful, graceful and does a good job. The film was produced by her last husband, and she later pronounced it "rubbish." It moves fairly slowly, but the painting-switching scene is very good. Not awful, not great. Seeing Rita Hayworth is always worthwhile.
helpful•41
- blanche-2
- Dec 21, 2014
Details
- Runtime1 hour 28 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.66 : 1
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