The Master Touch (1974)

Good concept, poorly executed.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Ah yes, the "ex-con pulls one more job" movie that every actor signs up for at least once in his career. And, if you like him, you'll go out and watch the movie to support his career. If you don't, you'll roll your eyes during the preview and wait until your celebrity boyfriend acts in one. That being said, Kirk Douglas fans should run out and watch The Master Touch. Non-fans should wait, because unless you're armed with your crush, you probably won't enjoy the movie.Kirk gets out of prison and returns home to his girlfriend Florinda Bolkan, who wants him to stay straight. Giuliano Gemma leads him into temptation-as always happens in these movies-and Kirk has to decide whether he'll risk his freedom and his girlfriend for the chance to pull of one last, big heist. The movie is very 1970s, so expect a slow pace, car chases, long shots and zooms, and a European flavor. If you particularly like that style, you'll find the movie more enjoyable. If not, you'll get through it and look forward to the next Kirk Douglas movie you rent.

To insure some box office for this film released in America as Master Touch, Kirk Douglas was added to this Italian-German production filmed in and around Hamburg. I'm sure that Douglas did this one for the European vacation he was going to get. Master Touch is your average caper film that has elements of other films like Bullitt, The Asphalt Jungle and Topkapi. But it doesn't glide into the different moods of these films, it rather lurches uncomfortably.Kirk is a master safe-cracker who's just returned from a stretch in the joint. It's never really explained why this American is operating in Germany, so I assume it was a German prison. Wolfgang Preiss, a syndicate boss for whom he was doing a job when he was caught wants him for another caper. Douglas turns him down flat, but Preiss won't take no for an answer.In the meantime though he's pinched for cash so what to do, but back to the old trade and he decides to pull the job that Preiss offered on his own. He teams up with young Giuliano Gemma, a young circus performer who he saw best one of Preiss's hoods in a fight. In the meantime wife Florinda Bolkan pleads with Kirk to go straight.The best parts of Master Touch are devoted to the robbery and it is here the film most resembles Topkapi. The robbery sequences show that Kirk indeed had a Master Touch.What he didn't have is good judgment in people and that leads to a climax somewhat reminiscent of The Asphalt Jungle. I'm not about to give away any endings.Master Touch will never make anyone's top 10 list of Kirk Douglas films. Good in spots it still leaves quite a bit to be desired. But Kirk's fans around the world will like it.

There's a lot of other, similar, better foreign heist movies from this period, including the French AND HOPE TO DIE, and the Italian LAST CHANCE which I both found much more interesting than this work.The main thing this one has going for it is once-huge American star Kirk Douglas in a very meaty central role as a super-suave master thief akin to Clooney's character in the recent "Ocean's 11" series. The supporting cast is also good, though underused, with Gemma as a trapeze artist who Douglas tries to recruit into the life of thievery. Wolfgang Preiss (the guy who always plays Nazi bad guys in war movies) plays the main mob boss with Romano Puppo in a satisfying role as his head thug. Puppo and Gemma have numerous fight and chase scenes which are fun to watch but add absolutely nothing to the plot. Speaking of plot, this one conveniently glazes over all the details of the heist, except on how Douglas deals with the security system's sound recorder. His preparations don't appear to be particularly well informed yet he seems unswervingly confident about the whole thing. Hmmm....He also has a hot girlfriend/wife/lover/whatever Florinda Bolkan... who repeatedly tells him NOT to go through with the heist or she will leave him. These assertions make absolutely no impact on Douglas, who is single-minded in his pursuit of a big score... and then he is surprised later by all the double-crosses.It's worth tracking down, but not exactly the most cerebral crime caper from the period. A little more realism would have done this film an immeasurable service.

If you love those 70's films, this has it all. The cars, the clothes, the "modern" machinery that is hokey today, and camera angles, etc. The best part of the film is one of the best car chases on film (perhaps top 10 best ever, really !), with no CGI, quick cutaways, etc., worth watching for this alone. The rest of the heist is pretty standard, but decent, with a complicated ending of course (it never just ends clean in these movies now, does it?). The movie takes place in Germany, although of course all of the text is in English, as if people in Germany speak English as a matter of course in their daily lives. It does not matter though, Hamburg is portrayed as gritty, again, that 70's gritty that we all miss and love to see in films.