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The Thomas Crown Affair

First review in a while. It's been a few months since I've been to the cinema, but I happened to notice this little nugget tucked away in the 10am showing of Toho's '50 great films' season.

The theatre was more packed than I thought it would be but I reckon this is due to Steve McQueen's staying power. He's in great form and Faye Dunaway is a sparky, saucy foil for him. The famous sexy chess scene is a stand-out. This film came out around the peak of McQueen's popularity, following The Cincinatti Kid, Nevada Smith and The Sand Pebbles and just before Bullitt. It didn't seem to do so well at the box office but it shows McQueen at his coolest (even Dunaway says he's "like ice" at one stage).

The film itself is not brilliant. It's a little floppy in the middle and some of the characters seem superfluous. It really is held up by the two leads, and while they're great, there's a bit too much dilly-dallying. One reason for this may be McQueen's suspected requirement to have some toys to play with in the story. He gets in a dune buggy, a glider, a Rolls Royce and even has time for a game of polo! If he wasn't my favourite actor, I'd say this smacks of self-indulgence.

The Thomas Crown Affair was also one of the most well-known films to use the split screen filming technique, which breaks up the frame to show simultaneous action in smaller frames within the main screen. It looks pretty good, if a little dated now but I guess it would have spun out some folk back in 1968.

Some final points:

The music is a bit over-blown at times, but the song did win an Oscar.
Dunaway likes to get around bra-less (see Bonnie and Clyde for more evidence).
McQueen would have done more excellent work if he'd lived beyond the age of fifty.

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