CinemaSerf

Though this takes quite a while to warm up, the actual heist caper stuff is quite fun to watch. James Mason "Calvert" is a bit of a crook. A sophisticate, but a crook nonetheless. He has two rather put-upon sons in "Stefane" (James Fox) and "Antony" (John Alderton). The sons are fed up with their permanently disappointed father and so when they learn that he is to move £1 million on a ship from North Africa, they engage the help of their pal "Segolene" (Susannah York) and of the man who can help them rob the ship at sea -"Duffy" (James Coburn). They put together and execute quite a meticulously planned theft that's got some dressing up; wigs; a priest and an helicopter - but can they get away with it? Mason features sparingly but for a change, York is quite competent as their never quite trustworthy cohort. It is John Alderton who really surprises here. He's always reminded me of a John Cleese-light kind of figure, but here he is quite decent as the brains behind the operation leaving Coburn to provide the muscle and the charisma. I didn't quite get the point of the ending, it all sort of trips over it's own cloak looking for the dagger; but it was an hell of a lot better than I was expecting and I did quite enjoy the middle bit.