Bezenby I didn't think this one sounded all that great, what with it being a Euro-crime film with a PG rating, but I was wrong. The Master Touch might not be as deliriously violent as, well, Violent Naples or Contraband, but it's got a certain charm to it thanks to the actors involved. Florinda Balken! Guilliano Gemma! Romano Puppo! And some unknown called Kirk Douglas, who manages to acquit himself nicely amongst those greats. Kirk is indeed a master safe breaker, just out of the jail after a three year stretch, and immediately offered another job by a mobster called Miller. Kirk's a bit torn about it (for about ten seconds) as his wife, Florinda, doesn't really want to be waiting for him to get out of jail a second time. Kirk starts preparing for a new heist in a seemingly impenetrable vault while giving Florinda the old 'I'm not up to nothing' whilst bringing under his wing trapeze artist (!) Guilliano Gemma. Gemma's got his own problems, having had a run in and a fairly mental punch up with one of Miller's goons, the late Romano Puppo, who chases Gemma all around Hamburg, out for a rematch.Kirk teaches Guillano the ropes while Florinda flounces around in a huff, and before they're all ready to go the film takes a left turn into one of the loopiest car chases I've ever witnessed. It's simply over the top Italian goodness, and starts off with yet another fairly violent punch up between Gemma and Puppo. I won't spoil it for you here, and all I'm going to say is that I watched it twice in a row. The heist is fairly tense and detailed too. Throw in a couple of twists and double crosses, and you've got yet another fine Italian crime movie, a genre they seemed to excel at.

classicsoncall Well it appears that everyone likes the car chase scene here. It WAS rather well done, and the bonus was having one of the transport cars fall off it's rig on top of the Miller henchman (Romano Puppo) vehicle. You would think the nameless tough guy would have learned his lesson after getting the snot kicked out of him by Marco (Giuliano Gemma) the previous two times. Come to think of it, the liquor shop brawl was pretty classic as well.I saw this flick under the title "The Master Touch", and it seemed fairly apropos considering the plot. Kirk Douglas portrays a safe cracker just released from prison who gets the idea for one last heist after turning down a former employer in favor of going it alone. Except he doesn't go it alone, and it all might have worked out if pretty boy Marco had ditched the knife like Wallace (Douglas) told him to. The parallel heists were another bonus, with Marco's job providing the cover alibi Wallace needed to escape scrutiny for the million dollar take. I wonder if Miller ever figured that out? The film has one thing you're not likely ever to see again once you've seen it here. When Marco double crosses Wallace and steals the big bundle in the suitcase, Wallace gives chase across huge mounds of coal near the Hamburg docks. You have to hand it to the film makers, they tried hard to come up with something original.

Cristi_Ciopron Michele Lupo directed this Morricone—scored Eurothriller made after all the precepts of the art; the cast is _prima—Douglas, Gemma and Mrs. Bolkan (a '70s lean supple _cutie _hottie, in case anyone is rude enough to inquire …).Genre—wise, THE MASTER TOUCH is a very straightforward gritty caper. The regular elements of a Eurothriller are on display—streetwise characters, car—chases, fistfights (between Gemma, here a circus acrobat, and his nemesis). A good caper functions on the diversity of the crooks involved—e.g., Gabin and Delon; or, Pitt, Clooney, etc.; or, here, Douglas and Gemma.The score is scarce but very atmospheric—dramatic and creepy, enhancing the suspense. This chilling music is, as mentioned previously, Morricone's.The denouement scene on the waterfront is both exciting, awesome, and iconic, coining some iconic frames for all three protagonists—Douglas, deceived; Gemma, scared; and Mrs. Bolkan, so cool, a genuine noir woman. The names allude to Douglas playing an American, and Mrs. Bolkan, a Hispanic babe, though the action is set in Germany.Gemma was, of course, a '70s Italian (anachronistic) cross between a Pitt and a Willis—anyway, smoother than Willis and less talented than Pitt ….Pals, if you are as addicted to Eurothrillers as I believe you are, then there's no further need to add that these flicks are distinguished by a singular gritty sharpness, their melodrama is sharp and singularly appealing. I have done a few entries here on this genre—movies with Nero, Delon ….

Michael A. Martinez There's a lot of other, similar, better foreign heist movies from this period, including the French AND HOPE TO DIE, and the Italian LAST CHANCE which I both found much more interesting than this work.The main thing this one has going for it is once-huge American star Kirk Douglas in a very meaty central role as a super-suave master thief akin to Clooney's character in the recent "Ocean's 11" series. The supporting cast is also good, though underused, with Gemma as a trapeze artist who Douglas tries to recruit into the life of thievery. Wolfgang Preiss (the guy who always plays Nazi bad guys in war movies) plays the main mob boss with Romano Puppo in a satisfying role as his head thug. Puppo and Gemma have numerous fight and chase scenes which are fun to watch but add absolutely nothing to the plot. Speaking of plot, this one conveniently glazes over all the details of the heist, except on how Douglas deals with the security system's sound recorder. His preparations don't appear to be particularly well informed yet he seems unswervingly confident about the whole thing. Hmmm....He also has a hot girlfriend/wife/lover/whatever Florinda Bolkan... who repeatedly tells him NOT to go through with the heist or she will leave him. These assertions make absolutely no impact on Douglas, who is single-minded in his pursuit of a big score... and then he is surprised later by all the double-crosses.It's worth tracking down, but not exactly the most cerebral crime caper from the period. A little more realism would have done this film an immeasurable service.