This has many of the same ingredients of other heist films such as a rare diamond in a museum and the assorted characters needed to steal it but it's also unique in the way that they lose it and attempt to get it back. Story starts out with John Dortmunder (Robert Redford) getting released from prison and running into his brother in-law Andrew (George Segal) who tells him about the diamond "Sahara Stone" that's on exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. An African ambassador named Dr. Amusa (Moses Gunn) wants to hire them to steal the diamond for him so that he can return it to it's rightful country but John warns him that this will be difficult.
*****SPOILER ALERT***** John and Andrew also hire Alan (Paul Sand) who's good with explosives and Stan (Ron Leibman) who can drive anything from a truck to a helicopter and together they manage to get into the museum but things go wrong and Alan is forced to swallow the diamond before he is arrested. They must now attempt to break him out of jail and they succeed but he tells them that he doesn't have the rock anymore which leads to the four of them in a wild hunt across New York City and ends with Alan's father Abe (Zero Mostel) hiding it in a safety deposit box in a bank.
This film is directed by Peter Yates (Bullitt) who during his career specialized in movies about unique characters such as police officers and thieves and had a knack to do it with a careful comedic touch. This is far from Yates best film but it's still indelibly his with rich characterizations and great scenic shots of New York City and in the helicopter scene there is a wonderful shot of the Twin Towers under construction. While the film is lightweight in nature it still has a script that is consistently humorous with the helicopter flight and the raid into the police precinct arguably being the highlight. Even though this film is over 30 years old (and God knows we have all seen our share of heist flicks) this somehow still remains a fun film to view with most of it's freshness still intact.
*****SPOILER ALERT***** John and Andrew also hire Alan (Paul Sand) who's good with explosives and Stan (Ron Leibman) who can drive anything from a truck to a helicopter and together they manage to get into the museum but things go wrong and Alan is forced to swallow the diamond before he is arrested. They must now attempt to break him out of jail and they succeed but he tells them that he doesn't have the rock anymore which leads to the four of them in a wild hunt across New York City and ends with Alan's father Abe (Zero Mostel) hiding it in a safety deposit box in a bank.
This film is directed by Peter Yates (Bullitt) who during his career specialized in movies about unique characters such as police officers and thieves and had a knack to do it with a careful comedic touch. This is far from Yates best film but it's still indelibly his with rich characterizations and great scenic shots of New York City and in the helicopter scene there is a wonderful shot of the Twin Towers under construction. While the film is lightweight in nature it still has a script that is consistently humorous with the helicopter flight and the raid into the police precinct arguably being the highlight. Even though this film is over 30 years old (and God knows we have all seen our share of heist flicks) this somehow still remains a fun film to view with most of it's freshness still intact.