The Master Touch (Italy, 1972) 95 – 112 min color DIR: Michele Lupo. PROD: Marina Cicogna. SCR: Roberto Leoni, Nico Ducci, Michele Lupo, Mino Roli, from a story by Leoni and Franco Bucceri. MUSIC: Ennio Morricone. DOP: Tonino Delli Colli. CAST: Kirk Douglas, Florinda Bolkan, Giuliano Gemma, Wolfgang Preiss, Reinhard Kolldehoff, Romano Puppo. (Cinema International Corporation; National General Pictures)
In a variation on the “one last job” theme, Kirk Douglas plays master thief Steve Wallace, just released from prison for a botched robbery masterminded by crook Miller (Wolfgang Preiss). Wallace is barely at the door to greet his wife after three years before being whisked away by Miller’s goons to be propositioned by his former boss to pull a heist at a bank with a high-tech security system. Wallace turns down Miller’s offer, and resumes his domestic life with his wife Anna, who is thrilled to have him home. Before long however, Wallace plots to rob that bank on his own. Joining him in the caper is the charismatic Giuliano Gemma as a circus trapeze artist named Marco. (This is one of six times that director Lupo had worked with Gemma. They had also collaborated on the adventure Africa Express, with Ursula Andress and Jack Palance, the Mark Forest peplum, Goliath and the Sins of Babylon, plus three spaghetti westerns: Ben and Charlie, Man from Nowhere, and California.) Even in the 1970s, a superstar like Kirk Douglas would work in European genre films, including Holocaust 2000. As well-matched as Douglas and Gemma are on screen, the acting honours belong to Florinda Bolkan, excellent as Wallace’s long-suffering wife. As the film continues, one wonders how she finds her nerves of steel to put up with her husband’s shenanigans. Like many Italian crime pictures, it features one double cross too many, despite how logical it may seem. Though the movie is derived from a well-used formula, the filmmakers took great lengths to make this look like something.
The great, prolific Ennio Morricone delivers another top-notch score full of rousing action and pathos. (Love those trumpets during the ending.) This film’s great look and visual style can be attributed (at least in part) to the great cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli (Once Upon a Time in the West; Ginger and Fred; Death and the Maiden; Life is Beautiful, to name only a few). The final heist sequence is particularly spellbinding, with its great sense of rhythm, timing, and excellent framing with use of reflections and foregrounds. There are also two long action sequences involving Marco and some of Miller’s goons, especially a thrilling car chase. (Before Gemma became an actor, he was a gymnast and stuntman, so he lends a lot of authenticity to his role.) On the surface, these scenes appear to have little to do with the main story, and perhaps because of the version in which we are allowed to the view the film.
Because The Master Touch is in the public domain on the western hemisphere, one shouldn’t have a problem finding a cheap copy. My DVD for review is from a double-feature flipper disk by Direct Source. (Many of these Direct Source flippers, featuring public domain chestnuts, including a lot of 70s TV movies, could be purchased for peanuts when Zeller’s was liquidating.) The movie is also letterboxed(!) -very uncommon in cheap PD transfers- so you can see all of the detail in the terrific climax. Although these versions generally run 95 minutes, some reference books list the running time as 112. Was there a longer theatrical version in Europe? This would explain the choppy story line, especially as Gemma’s character first appears out of nowhere. Perhaps a longer version elaborates on the suggested affair between him and Anna, and adds more substance to the long action sequences with Marco, mentioned above. As entertaining as they are, they still appear peripheral to the plot. Still, this is proof positive why it’s so fun to mine the public domain bargain bin- you never know what you might find! The Master Touch is a gem well worth your time.