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Nice effects though.

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

A Disappointing Continuation

Blistering performances.

The first twenty minutes of "The Burglars" concerns a highly complex and detailed home invasion/safe robbery, with four crooks in Greece making off with a million dollars worth of emeralds; unfortunately for them, the chief investigator on the case is playing both sides of the law, and he's onto them from the start. Based on David Goodis' novel "The Burglar", and previously filmed in the U.S. under that title in 1957, this caper has such a meticulously mounted set-up that it's a bit strange to have it change gears almost immediately into a chase-laden cat-and-mouse game (with amusingly derivative elements). Dyan Cannon is used as (very lovely) window-dressing, but the real flirting comes between master thief Jean-Paul Belmondo and crooked cop Omar Sharif (they share a Greek meal together that is so specific, it's hard to believe the intimate tension wasn't unintentional). Some of the action is truly hair-raising, and the film is generally good-natured and well-made, if familiar. **1/2 from ****

I remember the filming of this movie in 1971. Not many foreign movies were filmed in Athens, so this one attracted quite a bit of attention. I particularly remember the chase scene with the yellow trolley bus outside the Athens Hilton. The scene only takes a few seconds in the movie, but it took about a week to film, with the trolley bus immobilized in front of a busy traffic intersection, causing massive traffic jams! Re. the wild car chase: for someone living in Athens, the scene sequences are illogical, jumping instantaneously from one neighborhood of the Athens-Piraeus metro area to another, located even as much as 15 km away! But the net effect on film is great, perhaps even as great as the 'Bullitt' car chase.

...that's if you can get it at all. I haven't seen a copy of this movie in about 15 years, and it's only because it has such a dumb title that I can even remember what it was called.Honestly, I can't remember anything about 'The Burglars', which I saw once, in about 1989, other than the fact that it has the most amazing car chase I've ever seen. I remember thinking the stunt drivers must have been madmen. No special effects, slow-motion or anything; just insane high speed driving through the streets of Athens. Steven Spielberg is supposed to have said that 'The Castle of Cagliostro' had the best car chase ever filmed. I guess he can't have seen this one. Honestly, it's just nuts.As for the rest of the film, I don't remember, and frankly, who cares. If I ever track down another copy, it'll only be for one reason (and BTW, I'm not a car-chase, or even action-film buff. I mean, I thought 'Gone in 60 seconds' was as boring as dirt, as well as being utterly stupid. But I will always make room for the best example of any genre, and if car-chases were a genre, this would be my pick)Well, that wan't much of a review, was it? But from what I remember, it wasn't much of a movie except for the... yeah, yeah, OK: you get the idea by now.

The burglars is a classic movie, especially the car chase. There are few movies with car chases this good. Acting is average.