Jules Dassin's film version of Eric Ambler's book "The Light of Day" seems more like a light-hearted variation of his French heist-drama "Rififi" from 1955. A glamorous Greek thief and her Swiss lover concoct an ingenious plan to rob an emerald-studded dagger from the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul with help from a disparate group of wily characters. Peter Ustinov (wonderful) received the Supporting Actor Oscar as a British con-artist in Turkey who is initially recruited by Turkish security to keep an eye on this raffish team. The picture works mostly on a visual level, with a bravura use of color coupled with spiky editing to propel the story. If only the screenplay had been wittier, Dassin and company might have turned out a masterpiece of the genre. The movie simply isn't as sharp or funny as one might hope. The heist sequence is breathlessly intricate, and the sardonic finale is also a dandy...and yet there is a puzzling feeling of dissatisfaction which hangs over the end results. **1/2 from ****