Nicole Bonnet (Audrey Hepburn) is the daughter of a wealthy aristocrat, Charles (Hugh Griffith), who has one of the most extensive art collections in Europe. What his high-society colleagues and admirers don’t realize is that the Bonnet family has made their fortune through forgery, with Charles being a talents artist who has learned the skills necessary to rival any of the painters whose work he copies and sells as if they were original. However, the centrepiece of his collection is the “Venus”, a sculpture that he purports was done by Cellini, when in actuality, its the work of his father, also a skilled forger. He is convinced to loan it to a local museum, who insist on carrying out a test to check its authenticity – and knowing how effortlessly a discerning investigator can spot a fake, they realize they must find a way to retrieve the sculpture from the tightly-guarded exhibition before the evaluation. Nicole enlists the help of Simon Dermott (Peter O’Toole), a petty thief she caught in her home one evening. She believes him to be a sly, cunning career criminal who can help her retrieve the artwork, not knowing that he is the very kind of person after people like her father, a private detective with an immense amount of experience in recognizing forgery – however, he is immediately taken by the charming Nicole, whose desperation compels him to work on the other side of the moral boundary for a moment. Together, they hatch a complex scheme, the likes of which the Parisian art world has yet to see, and aren’t nearly close to prepared for the havoc these two high-society tricksters have in store for them.

How to Steal a Million is the kind of film that isn’t made all that often anymore – a stylish crime caper set in the gorgeous urban landscapes of Europe, featuring charming actors embracing their comedic sides and delivering hilariously irreverent banter while guided by the vision of a director momentarily taking a sabbatical from more serious fare to produce this incredibly entertaining romp that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but the audience can’t help being utterly enchanted by. William Wyler directed many masterpieces throughout his career, and Peter O’Toole and Audrey Hepburn made their mark in their decades-long commitment to the acting profession – How to Steal a Million may sit relatively low on the list of their greatest achievements, but this is not an indicator of this film’s lack of quality, but rather the immense brilliance of their respective careers that saw them make some incredibly poignant work that has stood the test of time and made them stalwarts of an era in filmmaking that has receded, and exists almost entirely in memory. Yet, its difficult to not embrace How to Steal a Million, even if it is very clearly not their finest work, but certainly amongst their most endearing. A comedy of monumentally fun proportions, executed with elegance and wit on both sides of the camera, its an almost perfect entry into a sub-genre of the crime comedy that doesn’t ever feel the compulsion to overstate its intentions or lead the audience to believe it is anything that it is. For these reasons alone, I have no hesitation in calling it a minor masterpiece, particularly in terms of the numerous other films over time that have sought to recapture this specific brand of chaotic comedy.

The crime comedy is one that has endured for as long as the idea of subverting the idea of the moralistic protagonist has existed, with dashing heroes who also do the right thing being replaced with charming scoundrels whose moral turpitude is counteracted with their devilishly lovable behaviour, and the fact that they never cross the boundary of complete corruption, staying somewhat pure despite their tendency towards playful dishonesty. Centering How to Steal a Million on two characters who are not criminals by nature, but rather engage in a single excursion into the depths of wrongdoing for the sake of defending their honour was certainly an effective way of making this film, whereby they aren’t wicked by nature, but rather driven to it momentarily out of necessity. Wyler was exceptional at constructing both endearing heroes and memorable villains, and How to Steal a Million gives him the chance to evoke both in his two central characters. Working from what was to become the final script by the criminally underrated Harry Kurnitz, Wyler makes another one of his delightful comedies, a genre in which he isn’t often the credit he deserves, especially since he made some truly mesmerizing entries. It’s far from serious work, and often finds itself defaulting into one of the many common but innocuous tropes it rarely attempts to avoid, but it stays as buoyant and thrilling as any other stylish comedy made during this era, which is a testament to Wyler’s reliability (even if he was not operating from a particularly visionary perspective) and the wonderful nature of the storyline, that almost automatically lends itself to pure effervescence.

Naturally, the element that is most culturally-significant about How to Steal a Million are the two leads, and for good reason. The film was produced during the peaks of the careers of both Audrey Hepburn and Peter O’Toole (although a cromulent argument could be made that neither were ever truly out of the spotlight once their careers reached their apex) and was one of their most successful forays into comedy, a potent reminder of how they were naturally gifted with skills for numerous different genres. There are some screen pairings that are just too magnetic to overlook, and this duo certainly meets the criteria. They operate on different sides of the spectrum, working within the confines of what they’re extremely comfortable with, but still challenging themselves to do more with these characters than anyone would expect. O’Toole, having been thrust into worldwide acclaim only a few years prior, is absolutely brilliant in only his second comedic role, playing the dastardly lovable Simon Dermott. The role has everything that we came to adore from O’Toole as an actor – effortless grace, a biting sense of humour and enough charm to propel even the weakest material. Performed with a glimmer of mischief and an immense amount of sincerity (which is starkly contrastive to the nature of the character he’s playing), it’s one of the many times we were reminded of the uniquely subversive elegance that he brought to every character he played. Hepburn is just as endearing, even through playing a more reserved character – much like O’Toole, she embodies the spirit of unbridled sophistication, with her otherworldly glamour and ethereal presence being so utterly captivating on screen. What is most striking about Hepburn is an actress is, even at the height of her fame, her work was always coming from a place of immense humility – she brought out the vulnerability and sincerity in each of her characters, never taking the opportunity to go too far, and thus creating mesmerizing, grounded characters that worked in tandem with her extraordinary talents.

How to Steal a Million is not the most complex work of either of the leads’ careers, but it is definitely some of their most interesting, solely due to it being a pure comedy, built entirely on their chemistry. They work together well, and evoke a certain honesty in a film constructed from a relatively thin premise, which the actors sell with a ferocity that proved they were not seeing this as an easy paycheck, but rather yet another chance to explore the depths of their characters. This is where How to Steal a Million becomes something of a challenge, as both actors, while assimilating into this story with perfect ease, were giving performances that were yearning for more of a challenge. This is a straightforward film, where the intention was solely to entertain, which meant that the more subversive aspects of the story were ignored in favour of a more simple approach, as deviating from expectations would be somewhat perilous from a film that attempted to be nothing more than a breezy romp through the European art world. This is certainly not a bad approach at all, and while not particularly complex, Wyler manages to extract exactly what he needed to make this entertaining comedy that follows the familiar beats of the typical crime comedy – a pair of likeable leads, a central conflict that is followed by an elaborate demonstration of the heist, and a resolution where everyone is satisfied. He even inserts a romantic subplot that would be gaudy had it not been for the commitment the actors brought to the parts. All the aspects of a successful comedy are met in this film, and while it may not be wholly original, it compensates with an immense amount of heart, which is more than enough for a film like this.

Ultimately, How to Steal a Million is the archetypal mid-century comedy that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but doesn’t use its more easygoing nature to condone a kind of narrative laziness. Its a charming comedy that has its fair share of thrills peppered throughout, and the final heist scheme is just a perfect calibration of comedy and mystery, with the previous hour of intricate plotting being worthwhile for the excitement of seeing the protagonists pull off what is one of cinema’s most enthralling crimes. There’s a lot of good work being done in this film, with the actors finding themselves at the forefront of a really remarkable foray into the roots of comedy, with their exceptional chemistry and willingness to go to any lengths to make these thin archetypes as realistic as possible being an enormous success. This dedication on behalf of the director and his actors is the sole reason How to Steal a Million works as well as it does, so credit must go to all involved in crafting something so beautifully irreverent and entertaining. It is certainly not much more than a mindlessly fun crime comedy that is built almost entirely on the strengths and fame of its two leads, but its all entirely necessary, since this is a delightful piece that keeps the audience engaged and entertained, even when the story itself tends to be somewhat predictable. However, the specifics aren’t all that important when it becomes clear how How to Steal a Million was intent on giving the audiences something thrilling, which it did with absolute splendour.